Which set our weake subdu'd distempered minds on fire Reason is put to flight and appetite beares sway Which blindly leads and blindly forceth us obey And that hee much mistakes who from a womans minde Or reason doth expect or just effects to finde Since passions indigest conceipt meere chance and will Their resolutions and their actions governe still But soft my gall-distilling pen your griefe contain Which howsoever just yet blaphemy refrain Admit her heart of fleshly temper fram'd as mine Bee pierc'd and captivate by Cupids pow'r divine Alas shee rather should bee pitied then accus'd Since what from force proceeds may justly bee excus'd And if indeed my faire Coelestia it bee true That your heart for another burnes as mine for you If you desire to bee so happy in your love That his affections unto you may mutuall prove If you expect your sighs which numberlesse abound Shall eâ—re receive reward or e're with joy bee crown'd Oh! let your your kindnesse then extended unto mee Make you deserve your happy hopes effects to see And faire beware lest if you shew unkind disdaine Loves justice justly yeeld you Talions law againe And if 't bee true that griefe delights in company Then will you love my presence and my sympathy Together wee will sit and comfort one another For griefe is most extreame when we our passions smother Where breathing out at large our due complaints of love Wee 'l both our hearts discharge and pitie learne to move And this lame happinesse of love shall please my mind That though you cannot love you are not yet unkind â—â—t pardon mee deare friend 't is not report alone Can prooflesse my aspiring fixed hope dis-throne But stedfast still in zeale and confidence I dwell As faithfull I love her shee may love mee as well IN fruitlesse expectation to remaine To bee in bed and yet debarr'd of rest To serve where you no favour can obtaine Is saith th' Italian to bee most distrest And these unfortunate effects I prove My faire Coelestia in my fervent love 'T is you detaine my long expected blisse 'T is you that make mee restlesse passe the night 'T is you I faithfull serve yet you it is Mercilesse you with-hold my chiefe delight And know faire creature hee that faithfull serves A costlesse favour ever well deserves Thinke that you have a friend that doth possesse A curious garden plentifully fraught VVith all the pleasures nature can expresse And all delights that ever cunning wrought And all these beauties singularly grac'd By a faire fountaine in the Center plac'd Hee lets you in with welcome entertaine And grants that many wayes your selfe you please Yet midst this ravishment you doe complaine Of thirst extreame which seeking to appease At that faire fountaine which you chance t'espie Your unkind friend his water doth deny And most uncharitable doth permit That part of it should idly slide away And part corrupt by over-keeping it Rather then yeeld a drop your thirst to stay VVhich nothing else can quench and 's onely bred By those dry sweets wherewith hee had you fed Would you now take this party for your friend O no I know you rather would conceive That all his kindnesses did only tend VVith quenchlesse thirst your pleasures to bereave And justly might you wish you ne're had knowne Those joyes whereby your joy is overthrowne That cruell friend faire love are you to me And your perfections that faire garden are VVhither a welcome guest I seeme to bee My senses ravisht all with pleasures rare Of beautie enterchange of words and kisses VVhich yet all breed but thirst and further wishes And those as cheapely you may satisfie As you a water drop may easily give Why cruell faire is't then that you deny That kindnesse without which I cannot live Deale plainly may not this the true cause bee You love my verses better farre then mee And apprehend that if I once obtain The full of my ambitions high desire My love will Moone-like enter on the wain And having won the day straight sound retire O do not so abuse your selfe and mee My love like Phoebus never change shall see My love like Phoebus never change shall see In constant course and heate ever the same And like the Northerne Pole shall fixed bee More firme then can be mov'd by heavens frame Constant to you till death I will remaine For never shall I see so faire againe No faire Coelestia love is Venus sonne Feare not the mother for the child 's destroying Nor is that saying unto you unknowne That th' essence true of love is in enjoying Hee playes the best who holdeth what hee wins The wiser sort still at their end begins If you approve my muses loftie flight And to be fed with change of praises still You must not oft delude her and invite Her to an empty lure that yeelds no fill A Hawke that loftily hath flowne and hard Well merits the best food and best reward Those exhalations that the heavens feed Did they not downe againe distill their rain Coelestiall bodies soone should want and need Those vapours which the earth sends up againe And Iove himselfe should lose his sacrifice But that hee mortals feeds and gratifies No fire can long subsist by smoak alone Flame 's by an oily solid substance fed Who divers times a field hath till'd and sowne Yet findes no profit by his labour bred His folly well deserves to reape but wind Having oft prov'd it barren and unkind Who shoots his arrows up and nothing hits Fooles bolts they prove which their own heads do break One may be ventur'd but he wants his wits That all his Quiver spends one shaft to seek Though vertue ought not foule repulse receive Yet wisdome wils us fruitlesse labours leave Full ill hee sings whose song cannot obtain A draught of drink impatient thirst to swage Though silly Bird I warble many a straine To please your eares imprison'd in your cage Birds long unfed their singing soon neglect No Almes no thankfull language must expect As happy in love are they that give as take Faire pity me and make me happy then Since you your self shall equall happy make VVomen receive farre more delight then men And if you find that I unfaithfull prove Let me be made a reprobate of Love And if you like these off-springs of my brain Whereto your self the Heroine mother are Suffer them not to die with drought but daign To water them from that your fountain faire VVhich true Parnassus spring doth Poets breed And tasted makes their Muse her self exceed It 's true that my affections lately bent And shap't their course that Mid-land straight to win Where Love hath plac'd his uttermost extent His else insatiate conquest to confine And as in nature it is proper known That fire should mount untill it hath attain'd His proper place the concave of the Moon So love untill it hath that center gain'd Whether by natures stimulating force It is
keep their credits treasure Where silly things that love vain glory Little respecting fame Make of themselves a blasted story Whilst others get the gain As mercilesse as is the Ocean Is wavering womans mind And to give reason of their motion Is full as hard to find VVho will their properties discern Like heav'ns joyes must know them VVhat they are never none could learn What they are not must shew them And as in heav'n no sin remaines Nor torment want nor passion So womans heart no good containes No firmnesse no compassion Nor doe I yet hereby condemn All women 't were too much But 't is too true that most of them Are over truly such I know they will themselves excuse And tax corrupting men But well they know a chast refuse Is seldome mov'd agen 'T is when we find they entertain And lend a gracious eare That wee pursue though they complain We hope whilst they will heare Sometime perchance to try their strength They 'l suffer siege and battery And sometimes too they 'l yeeld at length Such power have time and flattery Who Loves approaches once hath past As little need shee care In loves play to sit out the last Th' act where most hid they are But silly men why doe we show The paths of love to those That greatest Clerks doe overgoe And blind as they dispose Most expert Souldiers are they all With art to fight Loves field Nor better knows no Generall When to stand out or yeeld If they be strong they open march And brave the husband foe If weak they night and covert search All vantages they know Or by the confidence they claim In their good mans affection Or by example still they gain And colour their election And think not ever they are silly That many entertaine They are not ever the least wily Though often the most vaine They generally kind appeare And freeâ—ome use to all That those who they indeed hold deare In lesse suspect may fall As Keepers by familiar use Of feeding Deere at hand The simple herd doe oft induce To come unto a stand Where freely any one they strike So VVomen freedome use That unexpected when they like They their own game may chuse Such licence hath not ever been And foolish are we men Having had pow'r to keep them in To let them loose agen Faire VVomens love I doe confesse Is a supreame delight But whatsoever they professe 'T is hard to know them right Shee that pretends to love you best VVill now as well expect To see your love in gifts exprest As they that least affect They by the fruit will judge the tree Nor will beleeve you love Except they ample gifts may see Your love their worth to prove As men their wives love ne're the lesse VVhere mony 's the match-making So women will not have you guesse They love the lesse for taking But love farewell since I perceive Such paines and cost you ask And are so giv'n to deceive I 'l seek some other task Nought but assured love alone Can my affection move And since assurance there is none To know when women love My fortunes faith and free estate Shall ne're themselves expose To plead for love and think we hate When w' are but gull'd with shows As they oft meet with the best fortune That carelesse are in play So they that least plain and importune And most neglect are they Who women oftner doe subdue Then pitifull complainers They ever fly from those that sue And make the carelesse gainers Poore wailing lovers cease your hope That teares though void of strength Will by persistance pierce that rock Your Mistris heart at length Your sighs tears vows and rhyming plaints VVith all fond shew of duty Your making of them Idols Saints Sole Empresses of beauty All doth but glory work and pride In their insulting hearts Their own affections women guide Not plaints nor yet deserts LEt worthlesse spirits feare unstedfast love Guilty of defects that cannot love deserve Such apprehension never me shall move My faith and merit shall your love preserve But if change-loving your complection be By nature subject to saciety My love shall slack as well as yours to me Answering natures lov'd variety And though your love most precious to me is Yet have I learn'd to tame affections so That none more constantly shall joy his blisse Nor none lose easier what he must forgo 'T were idlenesse to urge your constancy For future time above our powers extent The wisest knows not what next houre hee 'l be Love's nor by force nor resolution bent But to prevent malignity of time And permanency to our love to gain Give me your heart to keep as you have mine VVhich no pow'r can remove whilst you retain And yours in me such merit shall approve VVe both will fearelesse be of change in love You 'l say they are toyes the fitter are they then For such vain bubbles Fantomes as are men They profit not and wisemen you will say Pleasures foundation on profit lay To them that want not to give nature right Profit it self in truth is but delight Postscript Alasse I cannot love nor will I wrong So much your kind heart or mine own true tongue To play the cheater where no need compels By vowing that I love you and none els 'T is for base foolish minds to undergo To please themselves or others with a show Free spirits in reality delight Loving to give true nature its true right And yet I cannot say I cannot love But she who now can my affection move VVon to affect nothing but for perfection Must be a perfect object of affection She must be unaffected faire ev'n at first sight T' arrest beholders eyes with sweet delight Yet such again where looking you may finde A silent check to a presumptuous minde She must be such as can give due respect To every man without a rude neglect Yet not of such a light and easie strain That her own due respect she not retain She must possesse a wanton modesty Free affability with Majesty VVit without pride a freedome well confin'd Discreet discourse but most a worthy mind VVhereby her actions she must ever frame To paint her beauâ—y with a beauteous name For noblest natures generous and free VVill never build upon a blasted tree She must to this such ayre of face possesse As gives a life to what her words expresse Now calm and carelesse then with spirit bent In silent Rhetorick speaking her intent Shee must be neither fulsome sweet nor sow'r Of ordered yet of free behaviour Accomplished with all most courtly parts Yet not transported with her own desarts Using them only for her own defence Not greedy to bring them in evidence Such a fair Orange tree my love must be Compos'd of such a contrariety So she in private be as Venus free Minerva let her be in company Desir'd of all possest by me alone Guiding her love with such discretion As
inquisitive and judicious Reader then much matter and conceit compendiously digested with sufficiency of perspicuity To conclude lines of a farre fetcht and labour'd fancy with allusions and curiosity and in similes of little more fruit or consequence then to ravish the Reader into the writers fine Chamaeleon colours and feed him with aire I approve not so much as heighth and force of spirit sententiously and weightily exhibited wit needs not rack it self where matter flowes embroderies become not a rich stuffe and art is best exprest where it least appeares A strong wing is to be preferred before a painted and good â—ense and matter elegantly delivered before extravagancy of fancy and conceit such unnaturall impertinency serves rather to shadow then illustrate to overwhelme then set forth the subject as well apposite as accurate writing is the Authorsglory Postscript upon occasion of the then young Princes pretended desire to have sight of the following Poems ANd here under pardon to conclude with this further defence of Love the subject of this little work but taking it more large and high I find love to be the most worthy object of the best and most generous dispositions and none but maligne natures that addresse not their thoughts towards it for what good and worthy mind hath its being that is not bent as upon its felicity either to the love of women the most naturall of men the most noble or above all of God the most happy and rewardfull Whither else tend all our studies of comlinesse of glory and noble actions of charity and good deeds Wherein can man so well resemble his great Creator as by worth and goodnesse to win love what more noble end can any man have to study vertue and perfection then thereby to win affection and praise the reward and food of vertue and tribute of God Nay love the essence of God the good spirit and wings of the soule the Mother Child and finall cause of Beauty the begetter and maintainer of the world the life of life by love the Sunne shines and the earth brings forth by love is society and commerce maintained by love the soule dwels with the body and God with the soule by love nature ever works for our preservation when the body and almost the soule are laid in sleep Admirable love without thee life is hatefull man but a wolfe to man the world a second Chaos For thy sake alone who affectest not a decaying Mansion I apprehend losse by growing old yet thus againe am I comforted by thy most divine power that thou never abandonest the dwelling of goodnesse and art successively fruitfull over all the good works of nature to the worlds period so that to the vertuous where the love of women failes the love of men begins and where that by the withering imperfections of age grows cold as the aire to a setting Sunne there for our supreame and infinite comfort begin to shine most clearly the beames of that divinest love which before were too much intercepted by the sensualities and passions of our younger yeares to make us therein eternally happy by that operation of love and contemplation of beauty which at the last must be our soules immortall food and joy Advertisement upon the first Verses I am not ignorant that who keepes the common road falls not into the incumbrances incurred by them who search or by or nearer wayes Writing is a by-path of life I am yet ingaged to it but hope shortly to get out and by the way I give you this Antidote and Rapsody of praecaution and true information concerning the following pieces The reason why I retaine and expose them with others is not so much that I esteem them worthy of view or life as that they were many yeares since Copyed and spread abroad beyond my knowledge then and are now beyond my power to recall they are more Chaffe then Corn fitter to bee ventilated blown away and play in the aire then vented in any Market and commerce of wit and censure they are incorrect if not incorrigible yet I consent to leave them and many other my pieces such as they are to represent unto me the difference 'twixt then and now To attempt to perfect them were to dispersonate their youth and hasty nature and fall into the much frequented stage Error of putting stronger lines and more conceited and elaborate elegancy into weake mouths and strong passions then well comporteth with them let their youth and genuine conception plead their pardon You shall mistake them if you often conceive them not rather the off-spring of fancy then passion But take them at the worst they have something of reason and serious in them and the errours of love are not so foule as the love of errour nor is it impertinent to perswade love in them who have constrained it in you and love may bee such as to become no lesse justifiable then naturall Love is in truth of divers kinds ever an Ebullition of the liver sometimes it is made and forced upon us sometimes wee weave and foole our selves into it sometimes it proceeds from gratitude and good nature of gratification It is generally the child of weaknesse as well as of idlenesse witnesse my selfe in my childish youth and Melancholy humour A vigorous gayety of the heart and mind taken up and busie in other affections and entertainments hardly admits it It is a sad confinement a disease like womens longing where the violent appetite of one object no better then the rest gives relish to that alone whilst a right and undistasted apprehension of every thing in the true kind is the much better and sounder constitution and as in longing after such or such a morsell the consideration is carried by the fancy and tast which have no rule but themselves or as at Table the hearty approbation of some one dish is a provocation to others appetites so in love And as most Dogs will often strive to get away anothers bone though otherwise little desired or when a morsell is offered to bee snatched from them grow greedy of that which before they neglected so in affections I leave the application Sometimes as love hath been tearmed a warfare so is brave Conquest made ambition too many make it their felicity and effeminately bend all their affections towards it Sometimes it is taken up for a fashion and to be in fashion is in idle times of no small importance to idle and gallant persons Sometimes like Coqualuchios and Epidemicall diseases it may much proceed from the disposition of the Ayre as in other kind wee may observe of quarrells that they seldome go alone Our poore volatile ayery affections are strongly wrought upon as well from outward as inward incentives winds and Aspects The first accesse of love is not ever by the eyes it hath often a strong foundation and preocupation begotten at the eare when a noble heart takes impression of a well lodged reputation eminent in fame vertue
so perfect is and faire As the best worthinesse in mee Cannot come neere in least degree Shall I then strive to quench my fire No rather love and still admire For shee love's proper subject is Who loves not her doth love amisse I 'le love her then and by her love So perfect I will hope to prove That shee may love what shee hath taught And once bee catcht by what shee caught Song IF you will love know such to be The Lawes of Cupids Monarchy That to refuse Is to abuse Loves government and I declare That such loves Rebells not his subjects are To love is not to bee your owne Love studies to please them alone Whom it affects Without respects Of ought besides and love confin'd Is but by usurpation love defin'd If you did love as well as I You nothing could or would deny But would conceive That you receive What you bestow if this were true Your heart to live in mee and mine in you IF my divining soule and all the Art Loves Schoole hath yeelded me foretell me true I may possesse a parcell of your heart And as I love be lov'd againe by you If fondly I presume and overween And all my arguments fallacious prove Pardon the errour that so oft is seen Of a selfe flattery in desire and love But if my wit my true Informer bee And yours with Sophistry doth not abuse You may be lov'd and honored so by mee As truest and most zealous lovers use If now you show disdaine my hopes are drown'd If smile with highest fortunes they are crown'd To her who shut him in her Closet to breake his hearing of her singing in her upper Chamber with her Teacher made upon the instant to perswade her to bee more free YOu like heav'ns influence beauty constancy And order would bee like in this To hide like themly our heavenly harmonie VVhilst all besides imparted is Yet Heav'ns themselves deny not that to those Whom in their high Spheare they inclose Bee then like heav'ns in all I aske no more They are no niggards of their store Vpon a Brayd of haire FAire thou art nor canst be other That proceed'st from such a Mother Soft and gentle youthfull white Suting her skin and th' eyes delight Such woare Venus and such haire VVeare all that buy to make them faire Silke and silver wrought togethâ—r Show'd so faire nor richly never Loves leading laisse I hope thou art And with thee bring'st to me her heart VVhich to owne imparts more pleasure Then honor beautie knowledge treasure Or all possessions which to gaine Caesar had left Rome Philip Spaine Alexander had forsaken To master earth and undertaken To conquer her whose love alone Had fill'd his vast ambition Triumph my soule in this thy prize Basâ— thee in her lovely eyes And in her joy more height of blisse Then ever fancie knew to wish Let spight and envie swell and burst And jealous frenzie doe its worst VVhilst wee by loves pure fire refin'd Their wits out-shine their malice blind And most securely live above All reach of passion but our love I cannot say I in your service starve Since you affoâ—d me hope to feed upon But if you long confine my food thereon My poore life cannot long it selfe preserve A meate it is so languishing and dry That hourely I diminish pine and faint Unwilling to importune with complaint But that hope bids me rather beg then die Faire flattering hope but oft deceiving guest Unhappy happy Anchor of our soule Which with distractions dost our peace controule VVhere evils known our minds would lesse molest Pity faire Mistris crowne my hopes at last Let me not still roule fruits passions stone And make hel-tortured Tantalus his moane VVho hopes and sees faire fruit but must not tast Best wits indeed at first their favours spare But or discard or ne're long niggards are If my Coelestia bee content to love Faire love mee then to my compleat content Soone will the summer of our yeeres bee spent VVhen life shall but a griefe and penance prove Since you the seeds of love in me have sown VVhich now are ripened by your faire aspect Oh doe not now your harvest due neglect But please your tast in gathering your own Let mee not Torch-like set on fire by you Consume my being in my selfe-fed flame VVhilst you too cruell make my death a game And triumph in my dying fondly true Love vertue like in action doth appeare VVhere words the cheapest Agents of our ends Oft counterfeit yet passe for perfect friends And proof-lesse none or little credit beare That I may thinke you are not one of those VVho for selfe glory are content to faine A glosse of kindnesse and to entertaine Admirers of their worth in verse and prose Give me an actuall argument that firme May you to me my love to you confirm FOrbeare my headstrong Heliotropian thoughts Forbeare your ever gazing on that Sunne Such sense-confounding object learne to shunne As you with naught but sighs and passions fraughts And you my greedy never satiate eyes VVho more you view the more you still desire Your over daring fixed lookes retire For sight subsisteth by varieties Abstaine my feet your hasty steps withhold From her to whom all lovers flock amaine But none are seen back to return againe Better is freedome poore then bands of gold But Traytors all I fondly you reprove Too late your alien'd service I recall Thoughts eyes and feet tongue hands and heart and all Are sole resign'd to her command and love And so inforc'd to love wee all conjoine Suters for grace to her the most divine IT was that gracioâ—s season of the yeare VVhen Husbandmen their welcome harvest inne VVhen fairest fruits are in perfection seene And Courtiers thorough woods chase flying Deere VVhen every swaine requitall due receives For all the care and paines hee had sustain'd VVhen I alone unfortunate remain'd VVhose care and paines no recompence perceives That I imbarqued in the Courtly crew Seem'd all intent on nought but forest sport VVhen oft alasse my heart was farre from Court Conversing most my fairest love with you Mee thought the hunted Deere the Dogges did chase Resembled mee whom my owne thoughts pursue And if a wounded Stagge I chanc'd to view My pierced restlesse heart pity'd his case Sometimes I checkt my thoughts as at a bay VVhich broke by your faire conquering aspect They freshly follow carelesse to be checkt Permitting my repose nor night nor day Sometimes I fly to solitaty shade Hoping to scape 'mongst thicke of letter'd leaves Sometimes in company which grief deceives I thrust my selfe but still my thoughts invade Thus toild by day when night sweet time of rest Cordiall restorative of all that lives Truce to our toile and fainting sorrow gives I tapiss in my bed all care possest VVhere restlesse still exil'd from ease I tosse By those my selfe-bred swift-foote hounds pursu'd VVhose long enjoyed chase hath so indu'd Them with
sollicited her work to doe Restlesse remaines still labouring in its course Till it may rest where it aspir'd unto 'T is likewise true my love hath mist its end And yet I cannot think my labour lost Though the main faile the By hath been my friend So farre as with content may quit my cost Like to the Alchymist whose golden aime Shoots chiefly at the Philosophick stone Whereof though hee fall short yet doth hee gain Many a pretious found extraction Many a quintessence and Limbeckt oyle To others and himselfe of use and pleasure Nor thinks it an ill guerdon of his toile T' impart unto the world such hidden treasure So I in these conceipts elaborate The wanton babes sprung from an am'rous brain My passions fire and heat evaporate And mine own ease with others pleasure gain And if I please the kind lascivious eare VVith these light ayres for pleasure only tun'd I seek no more nor care how the austere Censure these idle houres in rhyme consum'd They as superfluous banquet stuffe are meant Made but to please the outward sense and tast VVhich though they yeeld no solid nourishment They are not yet a profitlesse repast And if the strictest Stoick on Earths face VVaste not some houres as idly spent as these VVhereof remaineth no account or trace So necessary pleasures are and ease VVithout the which our soules themselves oppresse Then let me be condemn'd but if you find Your selves in pleasure wasting time no lesse Nor shew remaines thereof more then of wind Judge then my time at least as happ'ly spent As theirs that hunting love who little care So they injoy good pastime chase and sent To make the silly purchase of a Hare I Helen sought where Lucrece I did find At least a Lucrece she appeares to mee But were I Paris she perchance as kind VVould prove as Helen Troian youth to thee Oh no I do recant and firmly credit She is as spotlesse chast as perfect faire And thus will flatter hers and mine own merit If she were other I should not despaire And here my Love shall change its former hew And yet Chamaeleon-like remain the same As she is chast my love as chast and true And to like vertuous die it self shall frame Living still hers though only fed with aire And as her beauty won my heart before Finding her now as vertuous as then faire Her inward graces make me love her more Nor was my breast possest with such wild fire Thâ—t nought but Venus milk could quench my flame Hope 's the sole nutriment of my desire VVhere that once failes my flames alone grow tame Nor am I of so strong a faith in love To think where free occasion hath not wanted And free acquaintance hath giv'n means to move VVhat three months have deny'd will e're be granted VVho seeks a woman to his will to move Yet gaines no ground in furthering his desire Not to advance is to go back in love Let him good Souldier like his Siege retire But faire Coelestia since I have concluded Your vertue like your beauty most divine Oh let no sequel prove me now deluded Such subtilty would double that your crime Or be indeed what you appeare to be Or may you still at least seem so to me A FANCIE MY hearts faire Conqu'resse author of my griefe Deny me not to plead for my reliefe If you too cruell will no help impart Yet lend my plaints your eare to ease my heart Offenders capitall that plead for grace Are heard though not relieved in their case 'T is you the winner are cause of my pain Sick men and losers are allow'd to plain You that have made mee love can make mee live And none but you can my disease relieve Should I not then my cure from you demand I accessary to my death should stand Accuse not him who for deare life doth move But blame your selfe who so inforceth love You that have made my heart in love abound Ought not to bee offended with loves sound He that is almost dead for want of meat You must not blame him if hee ask to eat Nor ought you such an echo to condemn As love receiv'd from you resounds agen Nor blame that instrument whose sound is such As your faire hand is pleas'd to give the touch And if your heart to flint-like bee compos'd That to no pity it can bee dispos'd If 't be decreed by my malignant fate That here on earth that curst infernall state Must bee inflicted on me for my pain That I must love and not be lov'd again Yet be not angry Faire or if you 'l chide Chide Cupid that my subject tongue doth guide 'T is that blind little winged childish God That doth so often times deserve the rod For his mis-matching our affections fire With an unsuited different desire But to obey your will which unto me A venerable law shall ever be I 'le rather all on fire within consume Then once to ask a water drop presume And rather over-swoln with love will break Then once to dare of love to you to speak Thus will I inward bleed untill I find Or death or you my Love to me more kind Made in imitation of a Sonnet in Ronsard THough he that loves with unrequited love And finds his heat ingender no reflection Nor that his plaints can her compassion move That is the object of his true affection May uncondemn'd resume his love again And to a more kind subject it apply Himself exempting from unpityed pain Nor doth he wrong whom no desert doth tie Nor doth he faith or constance violate For vertue and folly incompatible be And constant Lovers uncompassionate Are foolish guilty of their miserie Nor breaks that Prince his faith who league hath sworn Of amity with some great Potentate Who will not after the like oath return Of love and faithfull aide unto his State For perfect love in sympathie consists And single Love is but a fatuous fire Yet little merits he who not persists No victory is gotten by retire I 'le love her still though shee unjust doe prove And happier contentment will I find In loving her with unrequited love Then to love one lesse faire though farre more kind IS 't possible you can deny With such unyeilding sleighting heart So small a suite so earnestly Pursu'd by my so true desert That not the cheapest toy you weare As ribban pin or thread of fringe I may with your kind favour beare Love feeds ev'n on the sleightest things Unhappily my heart is plac'd Since for my heart I cannot gaine To be in this slight measure grac'd That I importune to obtaine You feare be like that I will make it An earnest of what I desire No I 'le but as a Relique take it Of you the Saint that I admire And though my true loves due reliefe I hopelesse am e're to attaine Such proofe will comfort yet my griefe In that I reape not your disdaine Welcome at last yet pretty
thred Ne're yet since Love his raigne begun Was such small thing more merited More prized or more hardly won DO not reject those titles of your due VVhich natures art hath stiled in your face The name of Faire onely belongs to you None else that title justly can imbrace You Beauties heire her coate sole spotlesse weare VVhere others all some markes abatement beare T is not their cheeks touch'd with Vermillion red Sâ—ain'd with the tincture of enchanting skill Nor yet the curl'd devises of their head Their breasts display'd their looks fram'd to their will Their quick turn'd eye nor all their proud attire Can make me their perfections to admire All this is done without Natures consent Thy beautie needs no arts inticing ayd Thine nature gave their 's art hath onely lent Thine shall endure when theirs are quite decay'd Thy beautie others doth as much excell As heav'n base earth or earth accursed hell Others are faire if not compar'd to thee Compar'd to them thy beautie doth exceed So lesser Starres give light and shine wee see Till glorious Phoebus lifteth up his head And then as things ashamed of their might They hide themselves and with themselves their light Since Natures skill hath given you your right Do not kind nature and your selfe such wrong You are as faire as any earthly wight You wrong your selfe if you correct my tongue Though you deny her and your selfe your due Yet dutie bids me Faire intitle you VVHen God gave man the high Lieutenancy Of all commanding that on earth should bee Hee yet foresaw no true felicitie Could grow to man without societie Wherefore he made of a refined mould Woman to all his workes as crowne of gold The richest presents are the last bestow'd And arts perfections in the last works show'd Her solely hee intended mans companion Most pleasing object of his conversation Whereby who womans company condemne Highly Gods sacred will and Law contemne And few or none neglect their company But such as want worth or abilitie The worthiest men that most prize reputation Would rather lose mens then their estimation Which made th'al-knowing Solomon compare Their love to things most pretious and most rare 'T is not the vulgar breath as hath been said But womens good opinion that ne're stray'd They wits and vertues whetstones are that give The edge and appetite that makes us strive Each other to excell in show and deed To gaine the love of them that most exceed In feminine prehemenence whose love All noble courages of men doth move Honour from men but fruitlesse pleasure brings But womens love gives happinesse of Kings And onely followes those that do possesse The beauties art and nature doe expresse Other delights that hang but on conceit Are sawce and margent this the Text and meat Our sev'rall senses find their sev'rall pleasure But woman is to every sense a treasure To see to heare to touch and if not tast Tisby a sweeter pleasure farre surpast For taste in deed and every other sweet That wee enjoy by natures benefit Onely conduce unto the worke of love Wherein alone wee serviceable prove To God and nature who each worke beside Of our fantastick pleasure do deride And they that give all pleasure to the mind Are naturelesse distasted and unkind Nature to mee hath beene so much a friend I 'le ever honour her and serve her end But you 'l object that womens company Ought serve alone for mans necessitie And that their idle conversation Is uselesse but for procreation As servile ignorant nor ought of worth Is by their triviall fellowship brought forth But womens worth writers enough affirme Which so well prov'd I need not now confirme As for the fault of ignorance you finde 'T is but your education keeps them blinde Yet mid'st that blindnesse of such art they show As cunning'st wits of men doe overgoe And if their disobedience you mislike Beasts by our fall gain'd freedome they the like Perchance expect and as the Privernate Answer'd the question of the Roman State That rebells did such punishment deserve As they that judge themselves too good to serve VVhich made the gen'rous Roman set them free Communicating Roman libertie Knowing that nature n'ere that State would bear VVhich is commixt with servitude and fear So had I power to alter marriage law Both should be free and both exempt from aw And then this verse you happy true should find No comfort 's likâ— to women that are kind But you my doting ravisht soules delight Soule of your Sex subject of what I write VVhose company affords a second joy To that which heav'nly soules in Gods enjoy And whose privation breeds another hell To those that e're did in your presence dwell VVhere onely to have power to come and see Is happinesse above capacitie VVhose presence charmes our cares like heav'nly wine Infusing height of joy and heate divine To whom all other beauties that give light Are cold and dead as Glow-wormes in the night You a quick sparkling-bright-enflaming fire That kindles all comes neare makes all admire As much more lively pleasing in compare As gliding streames then standing waters are Sole Planet of our Spheare raising our blood As mightily as Cynthia th' Oceanâ—lood â—lood I need not name you you are like the Sun Knowne by the most obscure description Oh! if you could in course as constant prove Too happy should hee bee that joyes your love But you like an unguided Phaeton Take glory onely to bee gaz'd upon And to inflame this lower world with fire Of an unbridled and untam'd desire VVhilst your owne heart as hard and cold as stone Is plac'd above all conflagration Reserv'd I thinke to bee enjoy'd by Iove Disdaining all inferiour earthly love For Leda Europa Danae all in one Come nothing neare you Beauties paragon You surely are a Goddesse nor can bee Injoy'd but by a perfect deitie For men may thinke you love and finde you faire But thinking to imbrace you finde but aire Nature hath beene but niggardly to all That unto you shee might bee prodigall To you true beauties faire originall VVhence others have but counterfeit derivall Men may o're other creatures pow'r pretend But full obedience they to you extend And glory more your sacred power t' obey Then over all things else to carry sway BUt that great President of this faire Round VVee may not 'gainst thy will expostulate Nor dare upon lame humane reasons ground Oppose what thou hast pleas'd to ordinate Our reasons false light else would make us stray And with strong arguments our minds induce Against the marriage sanction to invey VVhence flowes such ruine trouble and abuse Nor can thy institution bee accus'd For that observ'd what now our torture brings Had such felicitie to us infus'd As equalls poorest soules with joy of Kings Matches were first made by consent of love VVhich constant mindes in puritie excelling Did so perpetuate that nought could remove Them from their first affections
fixed dwelling Now â—ordid avarice and swell'd ambition Without respect of love make marriage knot And are the vitious ends which that condition With want of harmony and discord blot In former ages love did marriage draw Where marâ—iage band is now loves motive made Grossely hee erres who thinkes that words or law Can sympathy of heart and love perswade Love rather alien'd is then bred by force An essence tender all divine and free Abhorring bands and compulsory course Fainting at thought of forc'd necessitie Happy those times happy that age of gold And free communitie of Plato's state VVhen love was unconfined uncontroul'd Nor any liv'd with those their heart did hate Then love the Cement of societie Sweet band of peace and musicall consent Failing and turn'd to contrarietie Each free from other to first freedome went And then the faultlesse quiet vertuous wight Did not the undeserved penance beare With an unreason'd snarling jealous sprite The pretious portion of its age t'outweare Nor did they in the sweet of home retrait The matchlesse cordiall of a travail'd minde Where happy love makes happy our receipt A purgatory ' stead of comfort finde Nor did that Phantome honour them restraine Or feare desertlesse husbands to offend Make women their true loves desire refraine Not daring lend their owne to please a friend Nor knew they false-bred squint-ey'd bastardy Nor yet the horror of a loathed bed No the heart-gnawing cares by jealousie Of loosely kept and lockt up honour bred Nor did that poys'ning damn'd Italian art The desperate refuge of th'impatient soule So oft prevaile with the malicious heart That no restraint of vertue can controule And since that many are of such complections That change they must nor ought can lâ—ng affect What misery it is to such affections To plague each other with their loves effect The Romans Iewes and many other Nations Had the advantage to repudiate Unty'd to alledge their accusations VVhich would but scandall breed to eithers state But since our law such licence doth not use Each take their fortune and bee well content A common destiny none ought refuse Stolne flesh oâ—t yeeldeth sweetest nourishment Since faultlesse none let 's beare with one another Brag of the better and the worser smother OH doe not taxe me with a brutish love Impute not lust alone to my desire No such prophane aspersion ought to move From you the sacred author of my fire I seeke your love and if you that deny All joyes that you and all the world can give My love-sick soule would little satisfie VVhich no food but your favour can relieve It is your better pâ—rt I would enjoy Your faire affections I would call mine owne 'T is but a prostitute and bestiall joy VVhich seekes the grosse materiall use alone The Town 's not ours the market place unwon Nor doe I her enjoy whose heart 's not mine Hearts conquest is the worthy ambition Seale of our worth a ravishment divine Invincible to strength of humane hand Union divine of mutuall burning hearts Which both subdu'd tâ—iumphing both command Soveraigne delight that God to man imparts Oh let me in this true joy happy bee Or never may you bee enjoy'd by mee MY love to shew her cold desire Hath clad her selfe in freeze attire VVhilst my loves passion all on fire Melts with her beames that I admire Shee by this habit proves shee needs No helpe externall from her weeds And that shee Phoebus glory exceeds Dimm'd by the covering clouds hee breeds THese things must meete to make my mistris faire A gracefull count'nance of a changing ayre A faire eye that a fairer soule discovers Good lippes full breasts sit play fellowes for lovers Plumpe wrests with hands well fashion'd soft and white Faire statur'd body to give full delight Yet I confesse I oft have pleas'd my mind Where what I mention was not all conjoyn'd TO bee assur'd men love as they professe Lydia it is a mystery I confesse And to discerne the right from counterfeit Is a high knowledge Artists hardly get For art on false things sets the fairest hew To make them bee preferr'd before the true The art of art consists in hiding art Well may you judge parts outward not the heart It is a hidden booke which the most High Can onely read with his all-seeing eye It is the private Closet of the minde Where what wee lay our selves oft hardly finde Noâ— to be robb'd or pickt by cunning'st wit But where weake spirits have the keeping it It is a Sea whose depth was never plumm'd Nor e're the creatures and the treasures summ'd It is a skie where wandring Starres doe move But the Astrologie is hard to prove Best knowledge of it is conjecturall Nor doth it under demonstration fall If outward things deceive expos'd to shew Lesse must wee thinke th' inward remote to know The best Physitian oft failes of his skill And thinking by his art to cure doth kill Nor can the cunning'st Lapidarie tell A true stone from a counterfeit set well Nor can the Goldsmith but by highest test Know an adulterate metall from the best A little truth makes falshood currant passe As little gold by Alchymy doth brasse Man 's growne so basely artificiall That wee have lost our golden naturall Emulous art hath nature overcome And inward peace and truth hath overthrowne Proud man that glories most in reasons use By reason 's growne most subject to abuse And not content with what God him assign'd With pleasures false and false griefe plagues his mind Whilst seeking the felicitie of opinion Still toyles but ne're findes firme foundation For what we build though n'outward force o'rethrowes Yet change of passion quickly overblowes Thus are wee still to seeke whilst other creatures Injoy the sweet content of natures treasures Nor doth th' one servile to the other stand Whilst hee 's indeed most slave that doth command Enough 's a feast to them whilst what wee have Begets in us but appetite to crave Nature assign'd equalitie to all Nor meant her free gifts under sale should fall Nor e're intended wee should bee so mad Having the face of earth so richly clad And so sufficiently for mans full use That wee should labour after things abstruse Subterran metalls wrought by fire of hell Mans happinesse and quiet to expell Making them Idols and the needlesse meanes To purchase all which shee so costlesse sends Whilst beasts enjoy a quiet uncontroul'd Free from the plagues and mischiefes bred by gold Free from warre murther theft and penury False calumnies and damned perjury Which wee old Rebells against natures law Foolish commit without or wit or aw And fettered live by our owne enthralling hands Most witlesse servile to fantastick bands Fooles to the wiser fooles mad in desire Preferring ayry smoake before true fire Subjects of fool-bred scorne passion and envy Malice and boundlesse curiositie Insatiate humor ne're content with well That vainely still importunes to excell Reasons and natures bounds which
overpast No period of contentmentment can bee plac'd Faire-promising little-performing joy That in th'obtaining doth it selfe destroy Our fleshes torture cancker of state and minde Fancies faire weed toy-doting childish kinde That feeds and mads with faire imagin'd showes Rewarded to know least where most it knowes Ape of infinitie that proud aspires Though nature bound to b'endlesse in desires Vext by that woolfe Ambition pride and honour That glitt'ring glasse that snares who dotes upon her That ignis fatuus that who e're pursues Oft meets with inconvenience that hee rues That tickling breath bought at the highest rate Guilt pill that costs so many a broken pate Monster that preyes upon our blood and ease And makes us toyle whom wee contemne to please That britly base strung gem most hardly won Rich lasting stuffe in show but quickly done That pleasant bait that feeds but never fils That Syren that then flatters when it kils That curbe of pleasure sweet of our fond pain Faire instrument ambitions end to gain But Lydia to return again to you I grant 't is hard to know false love from true Your proper art must bee your guiding thred That in loves Lab'rinth you bee not misled In many things we right conclusion take Though wee no certainty of proof can make I proof-lesse think her painted others faire And find faire weather in a threatning aire But venter Lydia she is ne're much wrong'd Who joyes the fruit of love for which shee long'd VVEll women w' are content for modesty You shall dissemble so you 'l be content VVee shall esteem it as a vertuous lie Nor force us to beleeve more then is meant To say you like and love yet have no end Nor any further pleasure doe affect Then such as friend communicates to friend In sight and speech and outward good respect Such may bee friendship but 't was never love Say truly when you doe your Lover kisse Find you no inward kindling sparkles move That you enjoy a more contenting blisse But may it not I feare bee over true That women have forgot to love indeed Nor any such true love is found in you As doth from undissembling hearts proceed And that you may not ignorance pretend VVhat true love is I will to you define That lovers true may reap their loves true end And magnifie a power so divine LOve 's an exhaled Meteor set on fire By beauties Sun in Region of desire A pleasing print nature sets on our heart Of fairest feature which to re-impart Unto the world shee agitates our mind That thereby we perpetuate our kind A longing after inward free commerce VVhere spirits seek with spirits to converse A mutuall blisse most joyfull occupation Where two that like would make one corporation Love is a liking taken to a piece VVhich to make ours we stick not at the price An absent presence businesse full of doubt A guest let in that keeps all others out A peacefull warre a friendly enemy A free State turn'd into a Monarchy Love is an essence all divine and pure A pleasant wound that only one can cure A weeping joy a hopefull sweet despaire An Aprill day Chamaeleon fed with aire A large imprisonment a bold fac'd shame A play where holding out makes lose the game An importuning fancy entertain'd That mutins reason if not well restrain'd An Incubus that sits heavy on the mind Or mewing Cat that hunteth after kind A â—igging to discover hidden treasure Sâ—â—â— union of the minds and bodies pleasure The plesant'st game that ever was invented That sweetest sinne so hard to be repented The happiest gift rich nature doth bestow On them that doe her service undergoe VVorker of wonders father of all things That makes Kings-beggers and makes Beggers kings That makes the Lawyer plead without a fee And the Divine commit Idolatry That makes the daring Souldier to preferre A single combate farre above the warre VVitnesse that Dame who did the Lab'rer win To quit his club and settle him to spin Love makes the Merchant think his home-spun piece Richer then the stuffe of India France or Greece Love turns the Courtiers reason into rime And his sleep houres to curious dressing time Makes him leave Master Horse and Hound and Hare To hunt his Mistris sure above compare And value each kind look kisse of her hand At higher rate then his best field of land Love makes the Sloven turn most neat affected Yet oft the curious carelesse and neglected Love makes the silent speechlesse man to speak Yet oft sets the best Oratour to seek Converts a Papist to a Protestant Whilst he in recompence prayes to a Saint Makes Atheists to acknowledge Deitie Yet holyest Writers profane Piety Makes honest unto one a common whore Yet makes lascivious who was chast before Transformeth women into manly shape Yet maketh men become effeminate Turns age to youth that once again they may In August tast the pleasant fruits of May 'T is Fancies nat'rall child ne're lawfull bred But where by Reason Fancy's seconded Fancy but liking reason love doth make Reasonlesse love of madnesse doth partake But both affections thus concurre in one Fully t' enjoy their object as their owne Nor is it love that seeketh not to prove That sweet which nature makes the end of love Were 't not a silly Bee nay a true Drone That having seis'd a faire flower as her owne Would simply on exteriour pleasure feed Nor seek to gain the inward honey sweet Such withering flowers are we and silly they That gather not their honey whilst they may 'T is natures work who the cold barren mould Makes fruitfull by loves fire species to hould Her mind and pleasures we ought not contemn Fantastick pleasures are not like to them One loves this pleasure th' other loves another But every Son delights to make a Mother FAire give me leave to call you cruell Since cruell I have prov'd you You kind appear'd but to adde fuell To torture him that lov'd you And well you knew your beauty never Could have bewitch'd my mind Nor had you me intangled ever Had you not seemed kind So to seem kind so to dissemble Are but false Syren notes And doe those trait'rous lights resemble That Ships intice to rocks Cruelty often favour proves And favour mischief breeds Hard heart which pity nothing moves More hard which torture breeds Had you at first made firm denyall Nor seem'd to have affected I had not lost with tedious tryall The joy that I expected Loves Card was wont to tell us this That we were neere our Port VVhen women did but heare or kisse But now all rules fall short Like Helens welcome Ile they are Refreshing pleasant ground Where to put in wee ill can spare But are most hardly found Like Proteus daily form they change Never the same remaâ—ning To day most kind to morrow strange Now loving now disdaining The witty yet that can contrive Honour to joine with pleasure Go thorough where they earnest give And
the ridling humour lately affected by many who thinke nothing good that is easie nor any thing becomming passion that is not exprest with an hyperbole above reason These tormentors of their owne and their Readers braines I leave to bee admired in their high obscure flight while my selfe will bee happy if I can procure but a familiar delight to a superficiall reading they affect to shew more wit then love and in truth so much that whilst they commend beyond reason they shew that either they want reason to commend or their subject to bee commended like ill ranging Spaniells they spring figures and ravished with their extravagant fancies pursue them in long excursions neglecting their true game and pretended affection Bee the matter or the discoursers capacitie never so poore and meane I ever affect a man that maketh right conclusions And for my selfe I would rather bee thought to want invention and knowledge then judgement and good consequence in what I utter The Poetry of these times abounds in wit high conceit figure and proportions thinne light and emptie in matter and substance like fine colored ayery bubbles or Quelque-choses much oâ—â—entation and little food conceits similes and allegories are good so the matter bee carried along in them and not interrupted by them Venus is here drawne by her Doves not Serpents and as I professe my selfe to want art in all things so in matters or love I thinke it may bee best spared as being an affection meerely naturall and where Art is seldome comely but authorised with a native disposition besides Verses of love are commonly made for women whose chiefest beautie consists in being unsophisticated by Art and are the more pleasing in conversation by possessing a free puritie of unadulterated wit And as wee often see that those women that have bestowed on themselves the most Art and costly dressing nay many times that have the best proportion are not yet the most winning So in Verses there is to bee exprest a naturall spirit and moving ayre or accent more alluring and charming the affection then others of a farre more rich faire and curious composition The world in all things is full of Critiques that are sharpe sighted to reprehend and will approve nothing but according to their owne rule many times out of square But for my part I hold the same opinion of Verses as of Ayres in Musick or Houses that let them bee delightfull and pleasant to the first appearance with conveniency to the designe and for the fantasticated rules of Art Architecture and proportion let them observe them that list and commonly who most affects them most failes in the generall delightfulnesse and use Poetry is in truth a kind of Musick the fable of Orpheus expressed as much Musick hath its Anthems Pavens Fantesies Galliards Courantoes Ayres Sarabands Toyes Cromatiques c. And Verses have their Hymmes Tragedies Satyres Heroiques Sonets Odes Songs Epigrams Distiques and Strong lines which are their Cromatiques and of themselves may bee excellent in their Art but long dwelt upon grow harsh and distastefull The commandements and preceptives are none of the poeticall parts of Scripture Though I am no part of a Scholar yet thus much by casuall opening of books I know that Horace in matter of love hates difficulty and though I beleeve it an imitation of his abrupt and harsh veine in his more serious peeces that upon the worthinesse of his name and matter hath debaucht many from the formerly used more open familiar and pleasing manner of versifying yet I finde that even himselfe howsoever either naturally or affectedly rugged except his Lyrick veine when hee uttereth his judgement or prescribeth to others concerning measured compositions no man is more frequent in recommendation of a round current cleare and gracefull delivery but what his morall solid and satyrick matter dispenst with is in slighter stuffe intolerable there shall you find the rough hands but not the voyce and substance let them rather imitate his best then his worst It cannot bee good in limited lines which are a purposed pause to the voyce to carry with a counter-time the period of the sense to the body of the next line much lesse to dismember an innocent word that every child according to nature and use in spelling would put together and words have a naturall ayre accent and quantitie whence to strayne them is to rack both them and the reader Who will set himselfe to daunce or his horse to manage let him seeke to observe good time ayre and fashion no man is fit for all things whose Genius was borne for prose let him write prose rather then affecting Verse to make such unnaturall stuffe as shall bee good neither I pity both in my selfe and others to see the best of our matter in one place so extreamly prest that it is a labour to discover it and yet in another part of the same peece slight and superfluous stuffe dilated at large A Poet should raise light from smoak not blow that which is light with him to carry but smoak to another I am of his Majesties mind that the best eloquence is to make our selves clearely understood and that to him who hath leasure there need no abbreviations I had rather pay for a little more paper then to bee put to the cost of my braine The admirable inventions and matter of your unimitable Uncles extant works flourish in applause of all by a happy and familiar display of their beauties to the meanest including withall such generositie of truely and profoundly extracted conceit to the most inward life of whatsoever hee expresseth that the strongest and clearest seeing judgements may rest satisfied yea transported in contemplation of the most lively and pleasing touches that a soule can apprehend or a pen distill Yet somewhat more to authorise my selfe Lipsius upon perspicuity holds it the greatest misery in writing not onely not to be understood but to be understood with difficulty and the sharp-witted Martial in contempt of the more formall and severe censurers and Writers professeth that hee would have his verses need neither an Apollo nor Grammarian and howsoever some may deny him to be exact himself in his entertainments affects rather to please his Guests then Cooks Verses of love should be verses of pleasure to please in love the smoother fac'd the better I may be crabbed and rugged but will never affect to bee so especially in verses whose true nature and use is to worke a kind of a Charme upon the mind even with slightnesse of matter by the well wrought and exquisite harmony of their Cadence and sound There being to be transfused into verse sometimes such a naturall spirit of magnanimity sometimes such a soft wanton and melting aire of passion that the one shall never faile to affect a generous and heroick mind nor the other to work a kind of tender and relenting disposition in a sensible and well-natur'd constitution neither of which
generalitie of love and applause attending it there is it already halfe as much subdued as it is ambitious to possesse and subdue to complete I acknowledge the approbation of the eye for a requisite concomitant To draw and quicken sometimes the saying of the shadow is usefully true it flies what followes and pursues what seemes to retire and flie Whether love bee most naturall betweene differing or sutable complections may as well bee a question as the old rule of friendship to consist amongst equalls hath been lately controlled But as friendships are conceived most firme in such relation and tye as there may bee a dependency wrought either by a reciprocation of mutuall benefits and advantages or where at least the good and fortune of the one relies and fastens it selfe upon the other So if the fantasticall existence of love receive not a fixation from some more solid root and consideration such as growes either from a rationall and deliberate election or from such like sympatheticall proportion of mind vertue and affections it will bee easily subject to scatter and blow away in the lightnesse of the soyle that produced it It is a fantastique and hardly to bee concluded on by reason but wee generally see it is specificall as betweene vipers and other creatures in their kind And certainly there is a self-self-love raigning in us which will not well permit a quick viperine highgusted spirit to fancy one of a dull and flegmatique temper Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight is as false as fine circumstance and opportunities more often beget it and love to shew its extravagant power ordinarily graffs it selfe upon the stock of an unfavourable prejudiciall and crabbed opinion As there is great difference betwixt What will you give and What will you take so is there in seeking and making love or being found and made to it Wise men are said to make more opportunities then they find but in love it holds the other way True love is as passive as active and it is the height of its true art to moderate it selfe as to love and bee wise How blind and unreasonable soever it is supposed as I have otherwhere said a fair kind and sutable object hath much to alledge why it ought to bee loved and it is a peculiar prerogative of faith to transcend our reason you see I affect to write rather obscurely then full and largely what you stick upon to conceive may stick the better with you I have often pitied to see not onely the most beautifull of creatures but the fairest and kindest natures most subject to the excesse and vitious fruite of their love and kindnesse there is belonging to them a kind of goodnesse being as well affected in a gratification of others as the naturall pleasure respecting onely themselves It is as happy that divine and humane Lawes have circumscribed us herein as it is miserable to see how nature by a gallantry of custome hath shaken off her fairer richer girdles and bracelets so farre as to become relapsed into her naked native current common with other creatures almost drowned in her owne whirlpoole and neglecting all other lessons of vertue honour and Religion men may ordinarily learne from women a strength beyond their ordinary in maintaining themselves above the vanitie and levitie of resenting impression from admiring and affecting eyes you may attribute it to their honour lying at stake one way as ours another but well considered men as well in honour as fortune prove the greater losers by such intanglings perfection of one may bee imperfection in another But here let the most unlovely natures and contemners of love find this Paradox that there is none of them all so clay or kay cold but despitâ— of their rigid perverse discourse and disposition I except impotent maleficiat aged and sickly frigidity if they meet with a right a kind and courting subject and bee plyed with warme cloathes it shall put them into such a heate as birds feele in the Spring or Deere in the Autumne yet this I grant that very many not incapable of love wander all their lives without meeting a true steele to their flint or a fatall constellation of the heavenly and earthly stars to their inflammation You know the proverbe of marriage and hanging and old sayings are somewhat authentique Fate may bee easilier slighted then avoyded Gamesters may think to counter-shuffle Fortune out of her course when the poore fooles become in truth her Instruments to shuffle themselves into her noose Reason and discourse were not given to us I confesse in vaine and they are to bee imployed according to good discretion yet such as will leave nothing to fortune are not ever the most successefull As men in ships conceit the earth to move when it is themselves so wee may wittily thinke wee leade and fetter fortune which in spight of our wisedome will prove our guide and steerer There are to us in our courses as to Pilots at Sea certaine insensible currents that force us out of our propounded way and scope Si fortuna volet fies de Rhetore Consul Si volet haec eadem fies de Consule Rhetor. The universall agent is the great and prime wheele by whose motion all thoughts actions and events are commanded It is hee who turnes Ille ego qui quondam from Mantua to Troy or Rome and so it gratiously pleased him to convert my Muse by a better to a better nature St. Paul made us witnesses of his and I am contented by an equall Communication of both kinds to make you witnesses of my better conversion That Eternall and Melior natura I implore to instruct mee to distinguish betwixt him and man true or false Piety and Charitie to preside mee in all my courses and leade mee in his trust to him in whom alone is all true fâ—licitie Amen Amen 1638. Many of these Verses I owne not for I In them was scarce my owne Nor am I hee Who made them but since from such vanitie May grow such change reade through and change with mee AVRORA AWake my silent long reserved Muse Th' allarme of love tumultuous in my heart Summons out all my soules best strength art And doth my weaker faculties confuse What serve you now you precept Sentinells You Rampars fram'd of reason and discourse Against all passions power and intercourse One puts you now to flight who all compells To yeeld unto her all-subduing might 'T is shee may truely say I come I see And captivate the proudest hearts to mee Her power commands mee love admire and write Her glory and my love above compare Wherein great Queene of love accept good will For it exceeds the power of earthly quill Either t' expresse they so transcendent are On then my pen my burd'ned soule to ease Shee absent thou alone my mind must please Not for their worth but for thy worthinesse Accept of these presumptuous ruder lines Where through my weaknesse thy bright beauty
from her arme I you presum'd to take And with your knot mine owne arme did adorne 'T was then I did my selfe your Pris'ner make And Captive still doe in your bands remaine To bee by her my Saint or sav'd or slaine It 's true I err'd and fondly you restor'd By arguments most happ'ly false abus'd For still the more that I her love implor'd Her strangenesse made it selfe still more accus'd And when acquaintance which should freenesse adde Made her appeare more strange my soule was madde I then consider'd though shee let you goe That shee my keeping you had neere consented And judg'd it sacriledge to take you so From her a Goddesse thereat discontented Hoping my inward peace to re-obtain By rendring backe my Heav'n-stoln fire againe But let us now faire love exâ—ostulate VVhence that your unkind killing strangenesse grew VVas it because by chance I neare you sat In that licentious place of publike view Faire doe not wrong so much your selfe and me To thinke my Company an injury Your vertue from suspition doth you free And many's persons make their acts suspected Whilst they that in opinion guiltlesse bee May doe much more fearelesse to bee detected Nor jealousie nor malice feare you then VVomen were made to company with men Put on the resolutions of your sexe That all backbiting spightfull blasts contemn And like worlds venome nought at all respects Calumnious tongues that good and all condemn For well they know if faire they bee esteem'd 'T was ne're yet seene but faulty some them deem'd To them for free enjoying of their loves The golden age is now return'd againe And who in true confession had those Doves VVhich doe in Court in Towne or fields remain Shall find few Turtles vow'd to one alone But matelesse in loves sweetest pleasures none The world is now out of minority And all inclin'd to doctrine of freewill My selfe alone to superiority And to your pow'rfull law am vowed still Nor wish I to bee free from that command VVherein my sole felicity doth stand Onely extend to mee a kind Aspect And free accesse to gaze upon those eyes VVhich Planet-like my faculties direct VVhose influence my firme obedience ties So shall I happy live and you may prove Contented in the office of my love PRetty precious Curle of haire Late fairly dangling by that eare VVhich Jewell yet did never weare To your worth or beauty neare Captivated now you are To him whose heart you did insnare Pledges unequall in compare Shee hath my heart I but her haire Yet would the hardy youth of Greece Have giv'n his hard-won golden fleece VVith joy and triumph of the prize To clip but such another piece How often hath the wanton wind To gentlest blasts himselfe confin'd VVhilst playing with you too unkind You shooke him off and still untwin'd And coyly turn'd another way Disdaining his unlicenc'd play The God of love dispos'd to stray Oft wrapt in you hides him all day VVhere when his mother him espies The little wanton nimbly hies From thence to cheeks from cheeks to eyes And often there so long hee lies That many a guiltlesse haplesse wight That on her eyes chance cast their sight Are sudden strooke and lose their light Punisht by his discover'd might Thus up and downe the darling skips And after still the Cyprian trips And chaseth him from eyes to lips VVhere Pitho her rich adorn'd Court keeps The next retrait that Cupid winnes It 'twixt her snowy mountaine twinnes VVhere when the goddesse him imprims Hee straight descends and happ'ly inns VVithin the vale of true delight VVhence to her Curles hee aym'd a flight But being overweake in plight His mother caught him and all night They both resolved there to rest VVhere such divine contents them blest That when they solemnize a feast All their delights are there addrest Yet Venus oftner it would use But feares her sonne would her refuse And for his Patron goddesse chuse Her mistrisse of my Curle and muse FOr wondrous rare I late heard told Two Suns at once I might behold That equall glorious equall cleare In one Meridian did appeare VVhich when together I did view I wondred what illusion drew So many judgements so awry But as it fareth with an eye VVhose accidentall weakned sight The masters judgement doth invite A single object to mistake And double seeming doth it make So doe these Aiglets false abus'd And in their seeing pow'r confus'd Reflections into bodies frame And thus they raise injurious fame Against that beautie which divine All others doth as much outshine As Phoebe doth a Starre surpasse As burnisht gold unpured brasse As fairest gardens fallow plaines Or Diamond coursest glasse distaines Inferiour beauties of our skies Shun her faire Spheare if you bee wise So may you shine and wonder move Winne much affection and love From those who to Starre-light confin'd Ne're came where the true glory shin'd But if with them you come in sight VVhere shee extends her dazeling light Like Starres obscur'd by Phoebus rayes Your selves remaine but light decayes And all your lovers at a gaze Like silly birds strooke with a maze To see a great bright shining light Surprize them in their dead of night VVill all about her flie and hover Themselves unable to recover From that attractive forcing charme Alluring them to pleasing harme Some guilty by their owne desire Shall haplesse perish in her fire Others her nets shall captive take And them perpetuall pris'ners make Some sad despaire shall strike to ground Nor shall there any one bee found Of will or power her to leave Till death his pow'r and will bereave Live ever my victorious Sunne And mayst thou those thy triumphs runne Whilst skies the Globe of earth shall cover Or in the world remaine a Lover Sole rule the Spheare of love and mee Poore Orbe that moves alone by thee Whose thoughts doe nothing else aspire But thee to please thee to admire FAirest haire that ever grew Farre beyond my worth or due Yet for zeale and love I dare With the truest heart compare That our mistris powerfull eyes Ever made Idolatrize You are that pretious silken grasse Whence my soules food and comfort passe And you such jewell are to mee As none can give the like but shee Who gave you mee O doe not scorne To bee by mee your captive borne Pris'ners their Fetters weare and I My soule in your enlacing tie You thinke you lose rich beame divine Too much by change of being mine But what you lose by your depart You gaine by thaldome of my heart Prove kindly true to mee and know Shee who did you on mee bestow May finde greater fairer many But more constant true not any Song NOw tell mee Artist can shee love Or loving can shee constant prove Constant shee is and love shee can But hard it is to finde the man What one to please her must hee bee Worthy and perfect such as shee Then must I of her love despaire For shee
advantage that no hope of losse Nor hope of life remains except your grace Relieve faire Huntresse my afflicted case INdustrious vertue Mistris of the wise Faire child of nature and of precept born Finding her selfe misprised and forlorn Since shee and beauty have beene enemies Whose quarrell and divorce at first did grow For that her counsell Beauty nought respected And idly nothing but her selfe affected Vertue now pitying eithers overthrow The more esteeme with all and grace to gain A league of late with Beauty hath compact And made it as a part of her contract Both in one mutuall mansion to remain And none so worthy none so faire approving They both united in Coelestia dwell No wonder then that shee doth all excell Love by their vertue or their beauty moving Vertue as her attendants brings along Modesty wisedome courtesie and truth Beauty brings smoothnesse white and red and youth Grace plumpnesse stature feature and that tongue Which like all her perfections void of Art Charmes and subdues even the austerest heart SInce I the fortresse of my heart resign'd That Conqu'resse faire unable to withstand Who here on earth loves forces doth command Cupid hath oft solicited my mind Her glory and his pow'r divine to write VVherein I humbly did his pardon ask Alleadging for excuse it was a task Too great and high for my unlearned might That I a stranger to those lofty straines And smoothly wrought ingenious conceits VVhich Poesie sententiously treats Should more imbase then honor with my paines Whereat my selfe hee will'd mee animate And bade me boldly undertake his will For hee with moving Rhetorick and skill My hearts invention would illuminate And told mee I should need no other book Then those faire Hieroglyphick Characters VVhich shee of worthinesse and glory beares To all eyes visible that on her look VVherewith embold'ned lowly thus I write VVhat Cupid and her eyes to me indite INjurious Time father of ugly vice Mercilesse enemy 'gainst beauty sworn Why mad'st thou not Coelestia to bee born VVhen beauties prize was put to compromise Had shee but then in competition been Ioves golden apple of contention Which caus'd the Goddesses dissention Had nevr glorifi'd the froth-born Queen For shee poore Dame had nothing to procure Their amorous Judge his favour to encline To judge to her that glorious prize divine But beauties bare and casuall fading lure Which with those gifts the other couple vaunted Hearts Idol joyfull wealth by Iuno proffer'd And gracefull wisdome by Minerva offer'd Coelestia all united could have granted She like Pandora doth all grace possesse Wherewith the Gods humanity doe blesse My fortune was the other day My Mistris to surprize Sleeping alone The fairest one That ever closed eyes Or ever Morpheus seis'd for prey Each part so pleasing faire remain'd You easily might discover Their beauty scorn'd To bee adorn'd By borrowing of another Nor wanted what her eyes contain'd Such sleeping conqu'ring grace to see Will certaine credit win That fire of love Doth only move From sightlesse power divine Of Cupid and her Deitie It by this slumbring beauty seem'd Sleep was with her agreed So much to grace Her sleeping face That shee should all exceed Who fairest waking were esteem'd Shee seemed like an Evening cleare VVhen absent is the Sunne Though not so gay More sweet then day Whose scorching heat men shun When th' eye of heaven doth appeare There might I gaze and view at leisure Each parts peculiar grace Brow white and even As snow smooth driven The heaven of her face Faire cover of the under treasure Her cheeks were fresh as blushing morn Nor tincture fetcht from Spain Nor ever art Could like impart True unite Roses stain By those our fatall Houses born Her silken breasts I next espy Faire wrought with heav'nly blew Time truly keeping Amidst her sleeping Blest who may rest on you Where Venus and the Graces lie Thus whilst in ravishment I stand Tempted by her faire lips To steale a kisse VVorlds second blisse In watchfull Argus skips My pleasures progresse to withstand Well Argus wel though then you crost Those my delightfull hopes I nothing doubt To fit you out True tun'd Mercurian notes Pleasures defer'd yet are not lost So happy is the pow'r of Love That wit could ne're prevent Nor care dissolve VVhat two resolve VVith musicall consent Affections mutuall joyes to prove Fond husbands cease your selves to vex True Cornut's onely hee VVhose feare adornes His brow with hornes And thinkes himselfe to bee Giving due right by wrong suspects Iealousie often makes unjust Deceit is taught by feare Who hornes doth watch Hornes may hee catch And faire ones may hee weare Resolv'd to wed resolve to trust MY cruell friend too inconsiderate of my state Why did you not conceale my too injurious fate To tell mee my Coelestia loves and loves not me Unfortunate subsisting eyes that day to see Why am I not like Niâ—be to stone convert Since love and shee prove so unjust to my desert Tell mee my dearest friend what reason what respect What beautious parts in him in mee what lame defect Makes her that frame of vertue so ungratefull prove So ill discerning zeale so to misplace her love If to bee full of feare of passion of desire My blood now over-runne with cold now all on fire If to possesse a passion-spâ—aking heavy eye Which if unfixt on her dejected still doth lie If stead oâ— periods with sighes to interlace All my discourse answers impertinently place If t' have a heart o'rewhelm'd with thoughts ready to breake And yet a â—ongue benumm'd that would and cannot speake If these affects I onely in her presence finde And stupid else with her alone am rapt in minde If in her absence ' stead of pastime mirth and joy I nothing can possesse but thoughts care and annoy A restlesse pensive heart 'twixt hope and feare distraught VVhich full with passions sighes and troubled anguish fraught VVhat late it best approv'd for tastlesse now rejects Nor any company but onely hers affects If sadly shadow'd brow and eyes armes intertwin'd A spirit to retire and solitude confin'd That never rest enjoyes nor joy but in her sight Banisht from all but this heart-easing pen-delight If whilst heavens torch his light doth unto us extend My thoughts to her alone and to her glory bend And when the night invades that gives all creatures rest I restlesse sole remaine my thoughts on her addrest If my enamour'd breast sollicit still my tongue To sound forth chosen stanza's passionately sung And some smooth-sliding well-tun'd eare-inchanting verse That may my love her prizelesse worth and name rehearse If this alas my friend her love cannot deserve Unfortunate I live unfortunate I serve No no you may forbeare an answer to returne Why I for her yet shee doth for another burne I know you will reply the God of love is blinde His arrowes poyson'd such as doe corrupt the minde With headstrong passion and with reasonlesse desire
gives accesse to no suspition Nor just grounds of dislike in going on A course uneven tyres a love discreet 'T is perfect love when love and reason meet Love checkt by reason doubtfull is and lame Finde me a Love so faire so free from blame Shee shall command my liberty and me To love and serve her as her votarie And mean while to prevent saciety I 'le live in joviall free variety Love 's but impression of Saturnian blood VVhereby we overvalue things though good Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum My farewell to Catlidge By M. G. SOurce of my sorrows whose unequall frame Presents the course and fortune of my life Here thine exalted height deserves the name Of uniform and stately faire No strife Of disagreeing parts yet th' other side VVith low and crooked lines abates thy pride Thy noble prospect and that large Empire By which thou seek'st to please and bribe mine eyes Can ne're deceive my grief Nor make retire Those streams which from thee sprang VVhose force denyes To be exhaust or stopt through troubled teares All thy delight dull darke confus'd appeares Me thinkes I see the Gulfe the Rock the Grave Where beautie strength and life and all that 's sweet At once their ruin wrack and buriall have Which all in one divine soule here did meet Thou fatall seate of that intestine war Which all that 's good and lovely quite did mar Thus to my griefe and passion thou dost seem Though crown'd with health and pleasure tho the place Where peace and plentie both strive to redeem With kind and noble usage that disgrace Deaths cruell hand hath lately cast on thee And to relieve the pressure lies on mee â—ut calmer reason doth thee represent In truer species to mee this doth plead Thy innocence this sees thy faire ascent And Noble rise which heavenward doth lead Chose by that matchlesse soule which might her bring To th' Throne and presence of her God and King Farewell and flourish then thou happy place Ennobled with the last and sweetest breath Of earths and heavens ornament whose race Here gat the end and crowne of life by death Long mayst thou stand and safely keepe all those Her vertues heires whom thy faire walls inclose Condolement upon occasion of the preceding Verses received from another Author MY other selfe in my affections and sufferings with whom more then all the world I delight to converse present and absent such satisfaction in the way of knowledge conference ingenuity and Religious vertue I no where else expect common conversations especially such as these times produce are to me as full of Soloecisme as the time it selfe they invite mee not abroad they have no influence upon mee either to quicken extract or fructifie Some are knowing but not trusty others simply but inconversably good there is scarce any thing left perfect complete or in any tolerable order now shee is gone whom we lament Pardon my present manner of writing for as it is to you so is it onely for you and my great confidence in you makes mee as incurious as free and open Though I am at this time unfit to write though my sonne lies under the disease and danger which hath bred our passion Though I am none of the best conceited of writing for the little good effect I finde from it wee live by chance more then by the booke and the best praises are every day poetically applyed to vulgar merit and the writers glory though I have resolved to leave it more then needs must yet to supply what I was yesterday saying to you in acknowledgement of the happinesse I found in you in the middest of my losse and griefe such as I reckon another Phoenix unto mee for wee will in the flames and spices of our Recordations still raise her up and keepe her alive to our soules eyes such as whilst wee live I beg leave of you to love seeke to enjoy and make my selfe yours with a consecration of mee and mine unto you Excuse mee if I am or have beene defective in entertaining you according to your worth and that I am of no more worth to bee entertained into such place in your affections as I affect And let my valuation and affection to her that hath left us and whom you best if not alone know how to value intercede and make supply with you in my behalfe But whither goe I I seeme to put on an affectednesse and complementalnesse farre beyond what I intended for my meaning next the giving you some account and thanks for the verses you put into my hand at my parting is onely in a tumultuary precipitate fashion to let you see how my imagination was apt to worke and what with infinite more I could have laid hold on if I had not deserted both the formall following of my fancy and writing Time is a dryer up of Radicall and other moysture and I reckoned my selfe as unapt to weepe as a statue Nature hath provided teares and showers for a mitigation and dissolution to heate and violence of passion and stormes and as violence is incapable of duration and reason and judgement with time recollect themselves teares thinking they have plaid their part give way to full and cleare discourse and cease in the stronger spirits Yet such power and so moving were your lines upon mee that entertaining my self the most part of the way upon them not onely every reading but severall clauses raised severall stormes and showers on my heart and cheeks So see we marble statues weep either in present sympathy with the weather or in future presage And I pray God the future sufferance of that family whereof by interest of blood I have the honour to make a part exceed not the present sense in this inestimable losse I was by the way like an Aprill day according as the Sun-shine and clouds of your spirit disposed mee Sometimes I suffered in an apprehension that according to your title of a farewell to the place you might bee become like others disaffected and abhorring all relations and circumstances to your griefe and so to my self but therein againe you happily and favourably cleared mee Sometimes I became transported in your lively representations of her worth and transcendent happinesse of excellencie both in this and the better world But presently as much dejected and overwhelmed in your patheticall expressions and sense of her losse But in conclusion I found you like your selfe as full of obligation as payment to mee as infinitely beyond my merit as in your owne conceipt short towards her in what you owe and her vertue may challenge My fancy wrought upon returning a farewell to Lees I had cause and matter more then enough as the breeder and true cause of that which hath been most unhappily translated to this unhappy place but considerations as due restraine mee As I said I resolve to deny my fancies their full birth or Trym I can no sooner entertaine
undertake and fewer prevaile in without it we are unfortified against our selves and others it is often attained as well by flying as opposition it is a master-peece to passe over anothers infirmitie as it is to put by the assaults of our owne suggesting fancy and concupisence which is yet many times so easie that who once hath learnt to repell first importunate motions shall finde them so farre from that importance and force which they pretend that sent away for the present and another motion of the mind entertained they will shew themselves such nullities and become so lost that if you would you can neither finde nor recall them This till wee can doe wee shall not bee friends to our selves Aversion and diversion are necessary in fencing cure and life Who cannot as well put by as make a thrust hath little art Hee steeres not well that cannot well decline and avoyd It must bee an exorbitant force to carry all downe before it Nothing is strong or weake swift or slow good or bad but by comparison and respectively to the Species and greatnesse of the body and subject To know our strength to know our selves and God is a height of knowledge to bee laboured for without some measure of it there can bee no happinesse God is the Author God is the circumference God the Center of all existence to him bee all glory Amen Amen Iuly the 16. 1638. THree things have presented themselves this morning to my consideration of themselves excellent though in divers degrees Religion Policie Arts when Religion is not exercised in sinceritie policie to publick good quiet and Justice and Arts are employed in folly and errour I cannot but deplore our humane corruption they should bee the perfecters of nature but distorted and abused prove to truth of judgement her mischiefe her deformitie They leave her not to her selfe and our super and preter-naturall life ought to bee instituted and advantaged by them if yet seeing they have undertaken to leade and helpe her they would at least be constantly true to themselves and their owne pretences it were well better possibly were shee otherwise if in her own hands lesse should shee have of trouble and lesse to answer for But perversenesse of disposition which is too generally predominant will ever wrest the best institutions to its owne vanitie pleasure fantasie and commoditie other is not to bee expected so it hath beene so it will bee whilst wee live in this world the best of us abuse our selves if wee finde it strange wee must doe herein as by the weather pray for good and take it as it comes use our endeavours cultivate our selves to the best and committing all to God if wee finde our selves better affected then the common course account at his blessing with a submisse and thankfull heart Iune the 10. 1640. VVIth whom shall I converse Where is the dwelling of wisedome or innocent simplicitie of heart Happy Shepheards whose conversation is with the heavens and the most innocent of creatures Man generally is become a mongrell neither good man nor beast A Christian in name a Woolfe in nature an Apostat to God and nature and they have no lesse forsaken him Justice long since tooke her flight to heaven Peace wisedome and integritie have followed their shadowes onely remaine upon us Who should maintaine Christian Religion endanger and destroy it who should draw a blessing by studying peace draw a curse of dissention upon themselves and us It were brave if men durst professe what they are or bee what they professe But from halfe-witted men there is nothing to bee expected but wholly folly and mischiefe Stormes ought to fall on their heads that breed them and so commonly they doe I will shelter my selfe as well as I may naturally I love stirring but the weather must bee fairer wrong courses may succeed for a time but right wisedome and justice will at length prevaile That shall bee my hope that my Prayer Sublunary dispositions are subject to various influence and vicissitude vertue as well as ignorance often labours fastidio sui Religion it selfe hath its Currents its ebbes and floods in entertaining things wee are taken with a contemplation of their perfections in progresse wee grow weary wee carp wee cavill Nature affects change and libertie ordinarily to the worse This the Roman Clergy knowes this they worke upon our vitiousnesse affects an indulgent hand that they present like greedy Chirurgians they love sores to feed upon their cure ignorance and libertie are the way to and in their Religion wee are too much disposed except God avert Suddaine Touches in the nature of Characters Written about the yeare 1625. A King TO bee perfect must at the least bee of the second forme of wit if not able to advise himselfe to the best yet to judge of and chuse the best upon debate as also to make election of Counsellors untainted in their wisedome and integritie Hee must bee seasoned with the knowledge of that great God from whom himselfe and all things have their power and being from thence will flow an affection ascending to him and descending upon his people with a holy ambition to imitate him as well in his justice and goodnesse as power and greatnesse Hee is a publike person intended for common utilitie and his affections must all concentrate to the publick good Hee must esteeme his happinesse and safetie to depend on the love of his people and therefore like a good Shepheard hee will chiefely be pleased in procuring their contentment and welfare And if as every Shepheard hath his Dog hee will assist himselfe with some person of especiall confidence hee must bee exceeding carefull that such his favorite bee not chosen of a condition rather inclining to the falshood and voracitie of the Woolfe then that fidelitie and good industry which were requisite to his and his peoples good Hee ought to thinke it a part of his dutie to seeke the understanding of his office from the best writers for them hee will finde the most faithfull and least flattering Counsellors Thence hee shall learne that the onely securitie and honour of a government both for the present and to perpetuitie consist in being zealous of Religion and reputation in maintaining justice and the Lawes of the Country which are the sinews of his government and the evidence of his Regalitie The zeale and observation of these cannot faile to produce the love of his Subjects without which hee would finde himselfe being assaulted like a man without hands which move but according to the heart And howsoever craft dissimulation and flexibilitie of conscience are in the tenet of many men qualifications necessary to Empire yet true wisedome of government will so order it selfe as to bee seldome or never beholding unto them for strength needs no engine and a good judgement will so reconcile the wisedome of the Serpent to the innocency of the Dove as to force the currents of vertue and state
both into one Channell His gifts preferments and undertakings must bee governed more by discretion then passion else hee shall want bee ill served and faile without pitie Reward and punishment are the weapons wherein hee must bee cunning for they are the Instruments of his honour and well being It hath beene an ancient and constant policy to make all benefits to proceed from himselfe and matters of distast from his Officers else doth hee hunt Counter but so shall all the thankes bee his and the blame theirs A good aâ—d cheerefull countenance to well deservers and such as observe respect to him will often spare his purse and make him a gainefull returne To take notice of the worth and capacitie of his servants and most eminent Subjects and to remember them in the distribution of his bountie and imployments will much conduce to his honour and good service To cherish the good and bee constant to his word is not the least reputation As also to enter slowly and with full provision into a warre and not to come off but with advantage To give a free eare to discreet persons about him that love him and his good and to shew an affection to dispence with his particular for the publike is the way to know all and want nothing Hee ought to bee compassionate to the poore and affect the relieving of his people else shall hee bee so far from goodnesse as to bee voyd of common humanitie To bee better content in a small revenue with love then in a great one with hate and groanes for where the â—eople loves the King cannot want Hee will by all meanes avoyd to supply a present want by giving way to a perpetuall mischiefe especially if not urged by the freeing himselfe from some imminent ruine Hee will delight in his people and the expression of their good affections and eâ—teeming the money raised from them as their blood make conscience in the dispending of it Hee will consider what is necessary in a way of constant expence for the good safetie and honour of a State and before all things assigne an infallible certaintie of allowance thereunto In gifts and payments hee will preferre the needy and well-deserving and crying debts before others or matter of bountie In case of defect of ordinary power for government hee will affect to supply it rather by assent of the State then by acts of Councell for they will never deny what shall tend to good government and it will stand more firme and beget better obedience To preserve his just power and Prerogative as well over himself as his Subjects and to use motu proprio as well in effect as in word will maintaine his Majestie in due respect not suffering it and himselfe to bee mâ—de covers of private ends and passions nor interessing it but upon necessary preservation of his Soveraigntie according to the constitution of the State where hee governes Hee will esteeme it as himselfe ordained for Common good and thinke no small Prerogative to be a King though governing according to the rules of those Lawes which make and keepe him so To appoint and observe set times as well for his affaires as recreation will keepe him from becomming a stranger to his office and interest maintaine his servants in their care and duties his Allies and Subjects in due respect and will prevent infinite abuses which might grow upon him nor will it abridge but rather give a relish to his pleasures To conclude hee will thinke that a choyce and great assembly like a great streame can hardly be corrupt and that their happinesse being involved with their King they are likely to give him as good honest safe and wise counsell as any three or foure heads in his Cabbinet Nec minus alienae libertatis quam sua dignitatis memor A good Counsellor A Good Counsellor is one whom nature studie and experience have fitted with abilitie duely to deliberate and resolve upon occurrents of the greatest importance and needs no oath for his conscience wisedome and sinceritie will teach him secrecy and fidelitie Hee will study his Masters honour and benefit and will bee more forward to give advise therein without asking then to move for his owne advantage Hee is a demi-god placed betweene King and People and must steare a course of justice indifferently betwixt both When feare a temporizing humour or private ends make him swerve from truth hee betrayes his owne honour his conscience and his Master Hee must ever affect to bee a good instrument betweene the King his Allies and Subjects for their good affections are the Kings honour and safetie Hee must direct his opinion by the examination of reason and truth and neither by his owne nor other mens affections His Master and the publike good must bee his object farre beyond his private wherewith hee must upon occasion so farre dispence that rather then not to adhere to Justice truth and a good conscience hee must not feare any displeasure or losse of office The more hee hath beene raised by his Masters favour and fortune the more hee will cloath himselfe with courtesie and modesty for that honour is onely true which is given to a man not that which hee arrogates to himselfe Or if hee will exercise a haughtinesse of courage it shall bee onely that brave pride of neither doing nor suffering injury for the other foolish one of selfe conceitednesse and disdaine is ever the issue of folly and parent of reflected contempt and scorne Hee will bee apt to doe good offices and affect dispatch for that will bâ— his honour as to undertake more then hee can performe and delude those that reâ—ie upon him will prove an abuse upon himselfe and his owne reputation Nothing shall bee more prevalent with him then to maintaine his Master in the love of his people for that King that is beloved at home is feared abroad possesseth a secure estate a joyfull heart and quiet sleep with present and immortall fame In which happy effects a good Counsellor reapes no small applause and felicity A good Parliament Man MUst esteem himself an Epitome of the three Estates with a principall relation of duty to the King the head for in respect of Common duty all the members of a Parliament are Homogeneall He is a Physitian of the State and so must indeavour to rectifie all distempers and disorders therein And if like an evill Physitian his ends bee either his own advantage or that he comply with the disease or inordinate humour of his Patienâ— he betrayeth his Prince and Country and is that murtherer thief or whatsoever of evill which is reproached to a Mountebanck Impostor The writs of Summons teach him his calling the King the Church and the Common-wealth are his object his own interest and allegiance will instruct him to affect to please the King but his conscience will lead him to assent only to what is wholsome his sincere judgement and not implicit faith is to be
ridiculous and tedious kinde of complements which some use as Saddles to all horses tyrannous oppressions to solid dispositions and such as abound therein get nothing but the purchase of lyers which is not to bee credited when they speake truth whereas an old fashioned free-hearted word or two to the purpose are ever more significant and effectuall There hath also been some treatises framed to frame a good Ambassadour but none that I know have descended to tâ—e formall and now morall part of civill and respective demeanor in giving and returning visits receptions and convoyes giving place at home and at the Table and such like some retired Ambassadour or Secretary might well performe such a taske Hee will affect more to heare then to speake but when hee unfoldeth himselfe hee will consider what and to whom and ever containe himselfe within the bounds of his knowledge and truth otherwise hee shall bee a loser by one of his best blessings his language Hee will not shew that brutish sensualitie to carry his mind in his belly nor his soule upon his backe much lesse let it transmigrate into a horse or dogge Bookes and women hee will use with discretion and moderation left they devoure and confound him nor shall hee make right use of either who beareth not himselfe above them All these are to bee used for life and not as if wee lived onely for them Hee will educate his sonne to be like himselfe and not infuse Grammar and Philosophie into him in such sort as if nothing else concerned him and his well-being And therefore hee will bring him up to the true understanding of honour and true reputation and make him no stranger to the managing of a house and fortune which as much importeth him and the strangenesse whereof to young mindes wholly ingaged to other studies and delights is one of the greatest causes of so many ruins to private fortunes What is most comely and right shall bee his study and to discerne of truth and right requires a fulnesse as well of acquisite as naturall furniture Judgement of comelinesse comes the more easily upon common observation That becomes us best which is most our owne most proper and proportionable to the circumstances of our fortune and condition It is over incident to many to trouble themselves incurre contempt and ruine their estates by an erroneous affectation of greater expense curiositie and bravery then would bee expected from them such breed and feed the Canker that consumes them What is observed and approved by the best most sober and judicious and neither to leade nor contemne to follow the fashion is the best rule to be outwardly too different is monstrous to be affected and curious light and ridiculous But I have past my hower and will not exceede nor intend I either to write all or any thing formally or fully in this Subject or if I did I know it were but lost labour for nature and preoccupate affection so possesse us that impressions may be renewed and confirmed but hardly first wrought upon the mind by the pen especially without out predisposition of naturall parts assiduity of meditation and iteration if not also the addition of frequent and authorized example In effect much pen-labour might bee spared at least in matters of moralitie for the best natures and judgements with experience need it not and the worst are incorrigible OBserve and practise this confused heap And you may chance no small advantage reap Nothing more fairely then discretion growes Yet with not ever clad in beautie goes Some say that nature doth the mind neglect Whilst shee the body doth too much affect 'T is best I grant when both are richly joyn'd But if you love your selfe love best the mind If you this Inventory rude despise You may I doubt more curious prove then wise A Supplement to the Gentleman at such time as hee was out of my hands HEe will practise frugalitie not so much out of a base affection to the love of money as out of a generall election which hee hath made in all things to order himselfe by that which is the best most comely and reasonable whereunto hee will subject all his affections and thereby avoyd the ingageing himselfe upon a present heate and humour to infinite inconveniences and repentance which hee might incurre as men daily doe by rejecting a due regard to the distant future and the true use of that discourse and reason which God hath given him where with to governe his actions and resolutions and which differenceth him from the beasts of the fields Nay it is ordinarily seene that even the brute beasts themselves in their courses doe lesse digresse from such reason as concerneth them then many an inordinate and wilfull man His course and demeanour shall bee ever constant equable and correspondent to his fairest ends and pretences as flowing from the same fountaine all of a tenure all of a peece avoyding that just reprehension which falls often upon none of the least eminent of being one in publick other in private now brave and generous and presently unworthy and sordid unweaving their owne web and unadvisedly clothing themselves in such motley as they would otherwise disdaine to put on Hee will not bee a Libertine in his jests towards men much lesse towards God and therefore will kill such itch in his tongue as most odious in Religion and most pernicious to himselfe and others All discoveries of an affected humour detract from him in the censure of the most judicious Wherefore hee will decline them especially in his cloathing for it argues too great levitie to bee imployed therein and too poore a diffidence of his proper worth to seeke esteeme and valuation from it I will little esteeme the respect of man or woman who shall respect outward more then inward bravery or rich apparell more then a rich mind though both doe well with women the best of them are not carried with showes He will not easily upon argument enter into passion which but argues his owne doubt and weakenesse for a cleare understanding will pitie or endeavour to rectifie but not bee troubled at others ignorance and calmenesse maintained with a friend is better then to prevaile in the cavills of dispute He will examine his owne sufficiencie and goodnesse by the best Authors and the wisest and best men and approve of himselfe onely so farre as hee proveth conformable unto them and finding himselfe fit to doe service to God his King or Country hee will put off all restinesse and floath and set himselfe forward to the imployment of his best industrie and abilities for the common good yet ever so that hee regard due opportunitie and modesty and make use of meanes just and honorable towards his advancement and imployment for though audacitie prevaile often upon others weakenesse yet it is more secure from disgrace to bee over-modest and considerate then overbold and presumptuous nor will preferment unduely attained bee valued and
difference between a rable of Clownes and Souldiers and what can be expected from such as are strangers to good order and the use of their Armes He will assist himselfe with good Commanders and officers for what is it else if their men bee Bisonians then for the blind to lead the blind It concernes him to know all things necessary to his expedition and to make sure that they bee fully supplyed for as the greatest honour in good successe so the greatest blame on the contrary will fall upon him that commands in chiefe As want of courage will bee one of the greatest imputations unto him so a sordid avarice and parsimony would bee none of the least for there is nothing more unanswerable to a publike exercise of an Honorable profession nor nothing more deprives a Commander of that affection and esteeme which are most conducible unto him in all his actions and exploits But the warre is an Art by it selfe Commands in warre are of severall natures occasions infinitely vary and they require a well experienced pen wherefore though I have said something to answer a request yet I forbeare to proceed further for I know it misbecomes mee and in truth were my abilities the greatest that ever any man possessed yet I finde the world so full of writing and so little effect from it every man flattering himselfe upon his owne braine and partially carried away with the undivertible torrent of nature which suffers nothing to appeare good unto him but what is sutable to it selfe that they must either bee more in love then I am with the exhibiting the unsatisfactory fruite of their conceits and better natur'd in bestowing much labour to little purpose or else they will as my selfe intend finde out a more healthfull pastime for idle houres An houres Meditation upon goodnesse and improbitie GOOD God! what and where is the good use of Religion just men have the Character of thee and thy goodnesse ingenerate in their hearts whose vertue alone produceth reverence towards thee and charitie to their neighbour the Sum of Religion but they are few the wicked abound and prevaile such as make a Stalking horse of thy word and a scorne of such as make vertue and pietie their direction Good men are a prey unto them and they sacrifice to their owne nets falshood is their levell private advantage their marke and like the Fowler they applaud themselves in their deceitfulnesse They prosper in their evill and crooked Arts whilst uprightnesse is an unthrift How little wit there goes to the wayes and language of infidelitie and how little commoditie to the exercise of truth Shall I therefore abandon the good lessons of my soule and habit of vertue smother that fire of grace and charitie which hath enlightned and warmed my spirit Shall I in a base applause of the prosperitie of such perverse spirits like unto them sell my selfe to worke iniquitie and esteeme the practise of Religion a Melancholy superstition Hell but a scare-crow and vertue a politique fancy No I humbly thanke God I consist of a metall and stampe more refined and divine The double-hearted man cannot more delight in his craft and cunning gaine then I joy in my simplicitie and truth nor can hee more deride my integritie then I scorne and detest his false turpitude and impietie Let him esteeme of wit and discourse as an engine bestowed upon him to advantage himselfe as well over the more innocent sort of men as over other creatures concentrate his goodnesse within himselfe become his owne idoll a voluptuous and barbarous beast of rapine and prey emancipate himselfe from all Lawes civill morall and divine shake off the bridles of fame and Religion or elude them by Hypocrisie whilst I acknowledge my great Creator the author of all benefits and goodnesse as I doe the devill of all falshood and uncharitablenesse whilst I rest inflamed with the heavenly love of that blessed fountaine of joy and beneficence and for his sake love the affections of charitie and goodnesse and extend their value where I find them as I prove them more or lesse extensive and communicable in their Subject activitie Let the ignoble minded man conclude knavery for wisedome sordid gaine a discreet policie and if he will let him account cowardise a warinesse for self-preservation and valour a foolish prodigality of life I am no such wittall I have been trained to take my measure a nobler way and will censure as vilely of him as his basenesse demerits howsoever disguised I will possesse my soule as the soule of a man educated and instituted to conscience honour civilitie and faire societie and rather chuse to perish a noble honest way then to advance my selfe by unworthinesse and fraud becomming vile and abominable to such as are truely generous and religious I will reverence God and righteous men bee true and zealous in seeking the honour and peace of my King and Country bee ashamed of nothing honest nor pleased in any thing dishonest bee more indulgent to the errors of a good then seeming vertues of a maligne nature nor will affect longer to breath then I shall endeavour to deserve the good opinion of such as are most justly worthy and communicatively good Iustitiae cultor rigidi servator honesti In commune bonus VVHat pitie it is that it may bee said of many as it was of Naaman the Syrian they are great they are honorable they are mightie and such like but they are Lepers in a spirituall sense which is the worst for Naaman was cured by washing so will not nor desire not they no more then Moores or Leopards SOme scorne to bee term'd honest but let mee Be honest deem'd as I would honest bee For such to be and firmely to remaine Require no little strength of heart and braine Of Death TO fill up this empty vacant space it is high time that I conclude my Characters with a word of the Philosophers common Theame I meane our generall long Vacation Death the concluder and destroyer of all worldly Characters and filler up of all eternity the period of consistence To speake much of it as others have done were to say much of nothing and to aggravate that by discourse which but by apprehension is indolent beasts feele it not Boyes make it no businesse resolute and stupid men regard it not and to a good Christian it is rather an object of hope then feare onely such as abhorre to bee alone and in the darke and the overbusy Philosopher confound themselves in conceiving and digesting it Things necessary and irremediable are rather to bee borne then expostulated swallowed then chawed necessity is the Unum magnum and faith the Unum necessarium in passing it over Whilst wee live it hath no being in us when wee die it is in an instant and no sooner come then wee are gone Nothing seemes more against nature nor is any thing more naturall but as I said I will not enter into the
contemperament and heat strength goodnesse and sweetnesse of nature and supernaturall grace excited and maintained I finde the best companions and Physitians of body and soule you are witnesse how necessary they have been of late unto me in the sorrows and troubles I have undergone I thank you for your visit and spirituall comfort you imparted to my relapsed Son hee still needeth it hee hath not wanted naturall heat and courage temper moderation and a well concocted discourse as well as a thorow digestion to some peccant humours of his body I feare he doth Time and conflict with evills have not confirmed and wrought upon him exchange of liberty health and pleasures for disease restraint and paine with an apprehensive contemplation of imminent death this mortall yeare work a melancholick dejection upon his minde and meeting with his infirmity appeare at this time his greatest danger A little ease strength and alacrity of spirits animate his naturall presumption to his harm and a little cloud overcasting him as much exanimates If God had not furnished me with as strong a resolution to flight as I have ever been apt to apprehend the worst events I had a thousand times miscarryed there is no slavery like the feare of death no bravery like the contempt of the world and fortune I have lost possessions friends brothers children but I have found God and have not lost my selfe I have sowed kindnesse and reaped dis-respect my good intentions charity resolution and the grace of God are my reward and ever-relieving cordials I seek not my self abroad nor judge my self or others by the successe others weaknesse and distempers shall not be mine it shall rather fortifie and recollect mee if my exuberance of naturall heate and fancy breed my inconvenience I can make an oyle of the same Scorpion to help me not to have too much is not to have enough Aliquid amputandum is the best constitution luxuriance of Nature is the longest laster at least if violence accident and over-bold indiscreet adventure intercept it not heat is the vehiculâ—m of vertue hot natured plants have the strongest faculties and braveliest resist the vigour and extremity of weather and Winter Thus I play the Pedler with you to you I open my pack of small wares to the world I durst but will not they would but pry and smile and scorn not buy to use to weare and make their own You finde here a great deale of trash but no trumpery many bables and toyes yet some Gloves to weare Knives to cut Linnen to adorn cover and keep warme Looking-glasses to see and order your self Pedlers are not ever unwelcome sometimes they are required at least let my good will make not unwelcome unto you this my good morrow Yet to goe a little further and end where I begun There is a happy and just use to be made of naturall heate of our selves and of Gods creatures instituted as Oyle for cheerefulnesse of countenance and Wine to rejoyce the heart of man that use to finde that to practise without declining either to excesse or fantasticall superstition and rigidity of humane Sophistry prevarication and errour is that wee ought to endevour and pray for in the discreet exercise of a good conscience which God grant us Amen November 17. 1638. THus you see Animal vigilans semper laborat some more remisse some more intense according to the activity of their spirits and occasions but my voyage is well past over and I will not spread my sayles to every winde I will be a stone to my self against the wings of my thoughts sedation shall be my affectation I will spare my fuell and rake up my fire let them make publique bonfires and ring their Bells to warme and sport the world who finde matter and joy to publish mine is inward and shall serve my self till opportunity concurre accept in good part with your wonted favour this my pastime account and register never intended for a work or piece of worth Farewell SOules must have objects strong high-relished The strongest filling fair and permanent Such is Gods love wherewith not nourished Earthly and base must be their nutriment No other love can defecate a soule From wallowing in delights base empty foule THou Lord who first didst nip me in the bud From time to time dost humble mee Lest I should sin by heighth of blood And love the world more then the love of thee I gratulate thy favour confident That so thou doest my soule preserve To bee a well-tun'd instrument To sound thy praise and thy decrees to serve Nor will I envy this mans wantonnesse His honor or the others wealth Esteeming nothing happinesse But to possesse a soule in heavenly health All other joyes infatuate the minde Feeding it with a false content Oh let me still thy favour finde To keep me thine I grudge no chastisement Moderate health and fortune are the best A little fire close set unto And heat sufficient to digest Doe the same things that more abounding doe The more wee have the more we still presume Disordred mindes good states abuse The highest spirits most consume May I have nothing more then grace to use Great Farmes are seldome duely husbanded Ranke grounds abound in noysome weeds Wolves Foxes Goates in wastes are bred He feeds more foes then Friends who many feeds THough Friends be absent conversation lost My bating Soule oft labouring in it self By winds and fortune on the black Sea tost Thou present Lord I feare nor wave nor shelf Thou Father Brother art and Friends to me Be the world whose it list so thou be mine They ne're miscarry who rely on thee Grace storms dispels more strong then they combine All thrives where thou the pruning Gardner art To thy Plants blastings frugall blessings prove Though Summer heighth and flourishing impart Winter gives strength and Timber to the Grove To thine all sufferings end in joy and rest And th' absence of a wicked world is best EAse handsomnesse nor profit 't is to tread Your shooe awry like may of vice be said T is ever best to live and walk upright Things crooked grown hardly return to right May I enjoy a faire and quiet minde Soules work like troubled Seas long after winde GOdly content and quiet of the minde Constitute happinesse resembling Heaven Where soules nor strife nor thirst of action finde Reluctancy is conquer'd all goes even Vertue it self untroubled must proceed Howe're its Acts miscarry or succeed Devotions Et quoniam Deus ora movet Sequar ora moventem Introduction DIvinest Herberts Soule daign that I joyn In Hymns accorded to the heart by thine Unto our Masters glory and admit Mee for a Rivall in thy heighth of love For though thy lofty flight bee farre above My creeping Muse in spirit verse and wit My love both may and ought thy love exceed Since greatest pardons greatest love doe breed Thus living sing we Swan-like singing dye His Panegyrick our own Elegie Others I
hope will come and beare a part To hide my want of voyce my want of Art Corona Alphabeticall in imitation of the 119 Psalme AWay unhallowed spirits fleshly borne Unto the second birth these lines belong Your eyes are full of lust your hearts of scorn You cannot taste a supernatur'd song When in Gods furnace you shall prove refin'd Divinely transubstantiate from above Your Soules contrite your stony hearts calcin'd And him propound sole object of your love Then shall my inspirations finde applause And penetrate your soules as well as mine Then will you finde them both your meat and sauce And warm your spirits at such beams Divine God knows what preparations I have past Oft broken with this Plough to kill my weeds Down melted in a new mould to be cast Macerate fetter'd fitted for new seeds When his magnetique vertue draws you come Till then to what I write be blinde deaf dumb BLest Founder of this earthly Hospitall Sole daily Benefactor to mankinde Lord Paramount of Lords of Kings and all Soule of our Soules controller of the minde Transcendent Essence dazling more our sight Then Sun-beams Owles harder to comprehend Then 't is for Ants to judge and reason right Of men and know whereto their counsels tend Thou who giv'st Faith and Grace spirituall Hearts happiest Center food and notion Who truely art what falsely we doe call Instinct or Nature Father of motion Inspire my soule my spirit animate Thy working power and glory to expresse That these my lines may partly expiate My lives and pens past errors and impresse Thy stampe divine upon my readers heart Assisted by thy holy Spirits Art COntemne not Lord this humble sacrifice This Incense from the censor of my heart Heart which thy quickning Spirit mortifies To live and die to thee a true convert As in my heart so flow into my stile Untie tune cleare my soule that I may sing Thy saving grace and prove most happy while I may one sparkle to thy glory bring None but a power Almighty could create Yet greater wonder our redemption was Nor goes lesse mercy to regenerate That worke nor consummate nor Sabbath has To live fresh fishes in this briny Sea To swim by faith against strong natures streame Beyond our reason and our eyes to see And make thy soule transporting love our theame This Antedates the sweet fruition Of thy most beatifique vision DIspence O Lord that I polluted lame Presume thy power and mercies to display Thy Priest should perfect be and free from blame But thy projection workes on base allay The greatest graces thou hast summon'd all Thy creatures to thy praise their rent to pay Nor can I chuse but answer to thy call Accountable for mercies more then they But yet alas what fruite can I expect From these farre short of lines Apocryphall Since thine owne dictates finde so small effect And Isralites prov'd hypocriticall Yes thou hast wonders wrought on me and canst By thy assistance so my labours blesse Some one at least by me may be advanc'd To feele thy Spirits motion and redresse The course of sinne which flesh cannot withstand Without the succour of thy sacred hand ERect O Lord thy Trophees in my Verse Confound with shame th' Idolatrizing Muse Teach such with me thy praises to rehearse T is better write to save then to seduce Teach them thy beautie riches thou who art Riches and beauties donor cleare their eyes To admire the vertues which thou doest impart To the rich furnish'd earth and guilded skies Thou needst no strain'd conceits nor figures such As they imploy to shew wit and give grace Thou their Hyperbole's exceed'st so much They faint to see invention wants a place Oh that my Verse like Aarons rod had pow'r To overcharme what those inchanters sing And all their strong illusions to devour Or like the Brasen Serpent cure their sting Then might my Muse triumphant Lawrell weare Endu'd with grace no thunder blasts to feare FAther of beautie goodnesse power and love Vertue of vertues spring of eloquence By whom alone we are we live and move And exercise a happy confidence Whose love to us made thee evacuate Thy selfe and glory frailtie to put on Frailtie to hunger die degenerate To man in all but his corruption Oh let thy love like love in us procure And teach us to deny our selves for thee Change which to thee was losse will be our cure Thy hunger food thy death our life will bee Teach us to love and we shall learne to write In Characters of love our hearts will flow Love chafes benummed spirits to endite And ever carries light ' its flames to show Make mee Oh Lord to thee a perfect lover And love will both it selfe and thee discover No wonder else if we prove dull to write For 't is a wonder Lord to love thee right GRieve Oh my heart grieve that thou canst not grieve Grieve that thy streames flow counter to thy will Grieve that thy fraile propensions still survive And thy intemperate nature swayes thee still Shame oh my soule oh shame to see thy shame Shame that nor faith nor reason can prevaile Shame that thou knowest most savage things to came And that thy Art upon thy selfe doth faile Suffer thou doest and justly suffer too In selfe offending wilt thou still befoole Thy selfe in doing what thou should'st not doe And non-proficient prove in thy owne schoole Yes Lord it will be so except thy grace Continually prevent preside restraine In thy least absence nature will take place Nor can against it selfe it selfe containe Children from Nurses are nor safe nor quiet Without thee soule nor body can keepe diet Destroy Oh Lord what foments our annoy Or wild presumption will our health destroy HEaven wert thou no reward Hell but a tale Religion but a waking dreame begot Twixt policie and fancy to prevaile Over fraile flesh and hopes and feares besot Were conscience but a brat of Arts begetting As reall in ' its falshood as in truth A home-spun stuffe as false wrought as selfe fretting A brand impos'd upon our tender youth Yet hath it pleas'd my Lord to manifest So palpably his selfe and love to mee Were nature richer sweeter I le divest And strip my selfe of all for love of thee None more then I th'erroneous print can read Of melancholy and superstition Nor better all their subtile steps untread Distinguishing between Text and Tradition Beleeve me more hath gone me to convert Then either wit or nature can pervert HAbituate maladies are hardly cur'd Relaps proves often mortall worst in sinne To me relaps'd oft and to sinne inur'd Strange hath thy mercy Lord and patience been Insolvable I am for such great grace Yet I ambitious am to make returne What most is mine and others most embrace In gratefull sacrifice to thee I burne Obedience Temperance I here professe Worldly delights and wealth I abdicate No fetter'd votary yet ne're the lesse My selfe to thee I freely consecrate Power
honour riches pleasures sensuall The Idols which the world doth most adore I flight as much and so I master all That others creepe to Nothing I implore Lord but thy grace in that more pleasure rests Then all the base delights that flesh suggests IMagination what thou canst produce By thy prolisique pregnant facultie Is a discourse as subtile as abstruse How thy owne species thou dost multiply In what great distance secret sympathy Through ayre or spirits thou act'st on things remote I cannot say with perspicuitie Nor how thy impertitions are begot Distempers and conceits doe verifie Strong fancied objects outwardly appeare Paying in opticall realitie The intromissions of the impregnat Ayre Woâ—ke then my faith by thy great energy Faith upon others warme with charitie The coldnesse of the times to fructifie By its diffusive vertuous qualitie Rise Lord and sympathetically encline To turne to thee thy enemies and mine KNowledge is sweet and bitter faire and lame A great impotor body fram'd of Ayre A chatting flattering and self-painted Dame More in conceite then reall beautie faire How justly could I raise a mutiny Against our self-deceivings till I finde Our errors are not worth the scrutiny Nor truths true subjects of a sensuall mind God found us in our losse and selfe-bred stormes And with his light his Port exhibited Us to disbryer crown'd himselfe with thornes And made us rich in wares prohibited Forbeare beleeve and love is all hee craves All other knowledge is as false as vaine Wee foole our selves and make our selves true slaves To our false dotage faith alone is gaine Thy constant love oh Lord is all my ayme All other affectations I disclaime LOrd I desire my contract to make good What e're befalls should I a loser prove How e're things passe as they are understood Wee cannot lose if wee can say wee love Though as wee feare so thou shouldest prove offended Though vitious longings satisfied would cure Though I could seise what fancy e're pretended Yet would I stoope to nothing but thy lure Charme what thou canst false world deafe is my eare Thou Lord alone canst fill my greedy heart No other object have my hopes or feare Nature adieu for I will live by Art Lord make me Master in thy Arts divine That this worlds Sophistry I may elude Could I as well demonstrate as define Solve as distinguish vice should not obtrude It selfe for vertue I would make appeare The height of pleasure is thy love and feare MY selfe converted Lord as thou hast will'd Others I would confirme and draw to thee That here more perfect though not yet fulfill'd Thy Lawes obedience and our joyes might bee My sinnes and sufferings my compassion breed To see soules not maligne bewitcht by sinne Let thy wounds Sympathy make their hearts bleed Knock hard O Lord and they will let thee in Their soules have cost thee all as deare as mine Vouchsafe that they may equall favour find Hadst thou not forc'd mee I had ne're been thine Open their eyes or they must still be blind But Lord thy will be done best time thou knowest Thy justice or thy mercies to impart Thou ever in thy favours overflowest Thy justice keepe for the malicious heart Charitie binds us to seeke others good How e're thy will and grace have firmely stood NOr Cynthia Starres nor Roses Violets Nightingales Wrens nor our heart-charming Queene Can so surpasse the vulgar delicates That shine and are in triviall beauties seene As doe thy pleasures Lord the worlds delights Which seeme to feed but leave us hungry still Suggesting false distracted appetites Which satisfied with gall and wind do fill Poore flattering fading pleasures sweet to none But groveling Palats Bubles of the minde Compar'd with them you shew how short you come By the discountenanc'd guilty shame you find As is the Galaxia in the skies A light from many hidden lights proceeding Such constant confluence of joy doth rise From Gods sweet influence of grace succeeding Lord guide me in a refluence to thee And worldly affluence my scorne shall bee OH Lord I know I may be thought to sing Triumph before full victory obtain'd But since thy pardon hath vouchsaf'd to bring Mee to thy feast of conscience unstain'd I nothing doubt mercy compleat to finde Why then my soule art thou perplexed still Stere cleare O Lord and pacifie my minde Since thee to celebrate is all my will But my extent it doth too farre exceed To tell the wonders thou hast wrought for mee Accept oh Lord endeavour for the deed My best expressions must come short of thee Then rest my soule repose in God alone Hee is thy countenance helper and thy Lord His mercy never faileth to his owne Such as beleeve and trust unto his word Yet Lord I care not so thy favour last Though Taper-like I spread my light and wast Or though I like the poore flame-courting flie Seeking thy glory singe my wings and die PRevail'd thou hast my God and made me thine A stubborne knotty peece thou hast mee prov'd Seaventy times seven at least thou didst refine And pardon mee by thy example mov'd To labour others good forgive their ill With courage and with love invincible Wee perish Lord except thou vanquish still And worke us to thy will reducible Great to thy Rebells Lord is thy compassion Which doth to us part in thy conquest yeeld In thee wee triumph over sinnes and passion And chase the strongest lusts out of the field Some live in sinne yet find thy grace at last To thee repentance never comes too late I in thy conflicts all my life have past A moment could not well mee subjugate The hardest conquest is the greatest glory 'T is not the course but end that crownes the story Advance O Lord thy conquest still in mee That I may find sweet triumph still in thee QUarrell no more my caâ—ping soule but yeeld Yeeld to thy mighty conquerer and know 'T is for thy good nature hath lost the field And that thy selfe thou to his grace dost owe. Thou hast thy selfe enrol'd into his pay Nature was false and paid thee in base coyne Oh doe not now thy selfe and him betray But fight against his enemies and thine Undisciplin'd licentious was thy course In thy first warfare natures stinging want And emptie pay led thee from bad to worse Sharking thy pleasure was thy food was scant In shiftings and in change thou didst subsist Thy purchases dissolv'd in wast and griefe Oh joy no more in doing what thou list But joy in thy well disciplining Chiefe Happy who are to his command resign'd All else is as the blind to lead the blind REckon we doe without our Host if wee Dispose Oh Lord our wayes irregulate In carnall appetites neglecting thee Sole Founder and upholder of our State As little reckon I as care to live Thou hast cross-byast me to this worlds pleasure Nature hath been as frank to me to give As unto others but another measure Hath
but by a happy constitution and cleernesse of body maintained by daily exercise I thank God I fear not any violent or long continuance Nay I rather reckon it as an excellent medicinall Physick unto me cold ferments into a heat and heat digests and purifies stormes clear the aire agitation refines and subtilizeth the water and fire and stirring advantageth the earth Evills are said not to goe alone and distempers purge away more then their causes But it is good as well in state as soule and bodies to maintain themselves in such a freedome from over-abounding in evill humors that misaccidents when they come and there can be no security against them may not endanger the whole frame Thus much of cold but what shall we say in surprises of heat and fire wee have lately seen many misfortunes thereby shall we therefore not build or not make fire to warm our selves such resolution were to defraud our selves of the naturall commodities of our reason and discourse which teacheth us rather to confine and moderate the use of things then utterly to decline them It is the property of wilde beasts to feare and fly from fire and of men to use it And now to revert something to our other nights discourse of Love which certainly hath some Divinity in it or otherwise it could never as it doth become a fresh and infinite Theam of our best spirits Love and anger are the fires of the Soule if inordinate as well dangerous as vitious shall we therefore shun them as a Plague whose best antidote is to fly quickly farre and return slowly is love as incompatible with reason as is pretended and may not Religion though supernaturall admit of a naturall and free vertuous affection betwixt the two Sexes Religion saith Be angry but sin not and is rather a rule to rectifie then extinguish affections they are the wings of the Soule without an object they are nothing and without the use of them we fall flat to the ground like disfeathered birds The Lady and Nation of Ladies which your Ladiship mentioned are not reasonlesse not to bee without a servant especially such as are or have been beautifull for it is a commanding Character certainely instituted for a delightfull entertainment and admiration It is an unnaturall stupidity not to be affected therewith and a kinde of injury to its Authour not to exercise such affection I ever mean without abuse but this concludes for women not for men our affections have more fire in them matter more combustible and women are commonly as well in effect as in title too much our Mistresses Children and fooles are not allowed to play with fire it had need be a strong well-prepared and well-habituated Soule that entertaines it we are no Salamanders to thrive and be safe in the flames What now ought a man that would be wise to doe affecting to give as well his nature as Religion their right Platonique Love is exploded Love is corporeall and entreth at the eyes Lust cannot be excluded for an ingredient which yet admitted it follows not that it must be predominant as I discoursed unto you some other over-ruling affection may contain and represse it either in a Religious civill or other self-interessed consideration nay even in a divers prevailing respect towards the very subject of our love I can be affected with the objects of my palat and eye and yet forbeare them burn with a surprizing desire of mortall revenge and yet refrain Fear and awe will prevaile even with dogs and beasts and why not in Love but how farre this is to be allowed in discretion I submit with a good morrow to your Ladiships more refined discourse and judgement I send you the Verses humbly kissing your hands and end with my Paper Your Ladiships c. A promiscuous peece of three houres work in a morning to cleare from further writing Madam IF I deceive not my self there is somewhat of power from above urging my addresse unto you I have now by Gods grace finished that my designe of Verses which I had propounded to my self they are upon presumption of your Ladiships favour to goodnesse and your humble servant their Author at your command expect not the strong Master-pieces and quintessentiall lines which these curious times and the refined ambitious Spirits of our age produce in defiance of Critiques my births are naturall easie and hasty sometimes foure peeces to my breakfast in the beginning of a morning I am as impatient as any woman of a long and painfull labour I haste to my journeys end and can as little hope or goe about to remould any of my first births as your Ladiships your children once brought to light I love not Verses of the ragged staffe but wish them fluent and gentle which was wont to be a commendation If my walls want strength to support themselves in their naturall stuffe and scope they shall rather miscarry then borrow the supports of inwrought strange conceits and butteresses of Art if I would undergoe any affectation it should be to deliver over ingenious notions and materiall instructive rationall conceptions with an ingenuous and genuine elegance and some depth of prospective in my termes and expressions according to the capacity and perspicacity of my Reader But I am now too old and serious for Verses and have wholly given them over only these my late peeces I conceived my self to owe to my Maker and I am sorry they were not my first fruite which are more properly his due Autumnall fruits are neither the most pleasant nor wholesome I have in great retirednesse and confusion employed my time of late in the dissection of my self and fortune our observations in the Anatomy of the body grow from the opening of others but of the minde from our selves as the Starres of heaven and Globe of earth they are as yet in great uncertainty and undiscovered some rules we have attained and Eclipses we can foretell but for sound and infallible knowledge and judgement we daily finde our selves as erroneous as our common Almanack-makers whose prognostiques are as ridiculous as false And now finding my selfe in motion betwixt heaven and earth give me leave to impart a contemplation of Characterizing such a perfection as yours in relation to them in comelinesse and beauty like the Heavens in motion regulate in order faire powerfull in influence A well ordered minde resembles the clearenesse serenity peaceablenesse and harmony of the upper Spheres and Crystalline Heaven a faire built body the beautifull variety of the earth delightfull fruitfull well drest and correspondent to the Heavenly motions in season order and constancy yet such little worlds there are which seem to enjoy in some exemptions a priviledge above the lower heavens and the earth for they are free from storms scorchings of heat nippings of frost inundations and other disorders such Comets are sent sometimes to be admired and to awake the dying vertue and reputation of your sex Phidias an